The Error Of His Ways
by AelysAlthea
Summary: Five months he'd lasted. Five months Will had managed to keep Nico at Camp Half-Blood, and after those five months he'd thought it was a given that he would stay for good. Evidently he'd been wrong, because when Nico fled past him as though hellhounds nipped at his heels it was to disappear with barely a glance backwards. What had pushed him so badly?
1. Chapter 1 - What Went Wrong?

**Summary:** Five months he'd lasted. Five months Will had managed to keep Nico at Camp Half-Blood, and after those five months he'd thought it was a given that he would stay for good. Evidently he'd been wrong, because when Nico fled past him as though hellhounds nipped at his heels it was to disappear with barely a glance backwards. What had pushed him so far? Why, after months of change and growth, of building upon a friendship that _could_ be something more, did he suddenly flee? Will wasn't sure. He didn't know if he even wanted to know. Unfortunately, his mind wouldn't give him a moment's piece until he collated an exhaustive list of exactly what could have contributed to such a disastrous conclusion.  
The end result? It wasn't pretty.  


 **Characters/Pairings:** Nico di Angelo/Will Solace, Kayla Knowles, Austin Lakes, Naomi Solace, Hades

 **Rating:** T - pre-slash mostly; if I happen to write a sequel (which is looking _very_ likely at this stage) the rating will probably change for that one.

* * *

 **Disclaimer:** All characters, situations and contexts are derived initially from Rick Riodran's Percy Jackson Series - primarily The Blood of Olympus and The Trials of Apollo. I do not make any profits or benefits from this work save for the sheer enjoyment and feels acquired from writing about one of my favourite pairings.

* * *

 **Chapter 1: What Went Wrong?**

 ** _~24_** ** _th_** ** _December~_**

The shadows didn't dispel. They had persisted for minutes that could have been hours, shrouding the dark interior of cabin thirteen and plunging it into even further darkness than was usually encompassed it. Had anyone bothered to peer inside, to glimpse through the door or the shadowed windows, they would have seen nothing but blackness, a veritable impenetrable fog steaming up the windows and clogging the doorway.

Nico hardly noticed. He hadn't noticed much of anything in the passing minutes, the minutes that could have been hours. A chill swept through him, contrasting to the brief, intermittent rushes of warmth that flushed his skin before dying into coldness once more. It took long moments of sitting, legs splayed awkwardly from when he'd slumped to the ground, before he could even process the words that paced around and around and around inside his head. Before he could reach an understanding.

Numbness. Frozen stillness. And only when the words finally sunk in, finally reaching some meaning, did be begin to melt. The blast of emotions that tumbled through him was even more confusing. Finally, finally reality settled.

Nico lurched to his feet. He made an inelegant scramble that he hardly considered for its lack of elegance. He slipped once, nearly falling back to the ground as he threw himself to the door, but barely noticed that either. He didn't even pause to grab his Stygian sword from where it rested, discarded and forgotten in Nico's confusion the moment he'd paused in stepping towards the door from Hades' cabin. The moment it had hit him. He didn't have the time or the inclination to attempt to affix it to his person. He couldn't slow in his onward flight as he burst through the door.

 _I knew it was going to happen. I knew it would. I've known for a long time that it would only end this way. It was only a matter of time_.

The words ran parallel to those that already cluttered Nico's thoughts, touched was shadows and sadness, fuelled by his long-held grief. He didn't notice his surroundings as he sprinted through the camp, across familiar stretches of open, snow-laden grounds, bypassing the arrangement of godly cabins, the armoury that resounded with laughter and the ring of steel as weapons were tossed between campers or tugged from walls for practice. He ignored the starts and glances of the fellow demigods he passed and for once barely even noticed the wariness in their gazes.

Nico had to leave. He had to leave _now_ because… because…

 _Why am I even running? Stupid! Where am I going to be able to_ run _to?_ The passing thought that noticed he headed towards the road that ran south-east of the camp gave him direction but… _Too slow._

Nico skidded to a stop between the amphitheatre and the volleyball court, a spray of snow kicking up around him. Why _was_ he running? The thought overwhelmed the detached sense of coldness that settled upon his shoulders, but discarded further by the heat, the adrenaline, the mournfulness that coursed through him. To his right a ferocious volley was rebounding between two teams of six. Someone, probably a son of Hephaestus, managed to set the ball on fire to shrieks and curses of stupidity that his teammates called. Nico barely noticed that either. His breath was coming hard, but less from exertion and more from the riot of emotions that raced through him. He could feel the pinprick of tears welling up behind his eyes and knew he had to leave before he could make an idiot of himself by letting them fall.

Or having them fall. Nico didn't think he'd have much of a choice in the matter. He had to leave now anyway, so –

Truncating the thought, Nico grabbed at his shadows. Like a blanket drawn around him, he tugged them forth and wrapped them around himself. The comforting embrace of darkness barely registered to him as he felt himself sink into the darkness of shadow travel. Camp Half-Blood faded around him and –

"Nico!"

It was just a fleeting glance. Just a second in which Nico caught a glimpse of Will Solace as he raced across the campgrounds in his footsteps. The son of Apollo leaped in loping bounds, long legs chewing up the distance between them, thickly-jacketed arm waving in a bid for Nico's attention. His face, half hidden with the tangle of blonde curls the flight of his passage whipped into a frenzy, was tight with confusion, with worry, shouting the words _"Where are you going?"_ even as tongue struggled to utter them.

Nico had half a second to regret, to reprimand, to scold himself that he hadn't spoken to Will first. That he hadn't explained as by all rights he should have because Will would _worry_. But he had to leave. Now. He _wanted_ to leave, desperately had to go. And the resolution flung him from the light of camp, from Will's gaze, without a backward glance.

* * *

Will shook his head, folding his arms as he watched Ellis Wakefield dancing a shambling jig before him. At least, that's what it looked like to him. If Ellis was to be believed, he was in fact attempting to prove that his broken ankle – his _still_ broken ankle – was more than mended enough for him to jump back into training that morning.

"I'm not convinced," Will said. He propped his elbows upon his knees, fingers tapping on the leg of his jeans in a pointedly disapproving rhythm.

Ellis halted in his dancing to utter a whinging groan. His breath blew out in a cloud of fog that temporarily cast an opaque mask over his face. "It's fine. Look! I'm walking on it and everything." He demonstrated what did indeed appear to be walking, taking a turn in a circle in front the Apollo cabin and leaving a ring of footprints in the snow before raising his hands as if to say "tada!"

Will wasn't fooled. "You were limping."

"No, I wasn't."

"Yes, you were."

"No, I wasn't!"

Will sighed, raising his gaze skyward long sufferingly. "Ellis, who's the doctor here?"

"No, I – what?"

"Who has the majority of medical knowledge and experience between the two of us?"

Ellis frowned, pouting. Will instantly recognised it as an expression of defeat, regardless of whether he was stubborn enough to admit it himself. Children of Ares were renowned for being pig-headedly stubborn. "You do," he grumbled.

"Right. And who was assigned by Chiron and Mr D to look after anyone stupid enough to trip into a rabbit hole in the middle of the woods and break their ankle?"

Another grumble. "You."

"And who, exactly, will be the one that has to splint and strap your ankle when you come to me this afternoon after acting like an idiot and admit that yes, you were in fact an idiot and yes, I was right, you weren't ready to get back on your feet yet and yes, you're sorry, Will, you're eternally indebted to me and will forever do what I tell you to because you _knew_ that you weren't fully healed yet and that you'd just do more damage to yourself when you –"

"Alright, alright," Ellis interrupted with a sigh, hands upheld in placation. Though he still frowned, still pouted, his shoulder slumped dejectedly, in actual realisation of his defeat this time. "I get it."

"Do you?" Will raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. I get it." Ellis grumbled something further unintelligibly beneath his breath before raising his voice enough to be heard. "I still don't understand why I can't just take some ambrosia."

"Of course you can't," Will said, waving off the suggesting as though it were nothing but foolishness. "You know you can develop a tolerance for the healing effects of ambrosia, right?"

Ellis blinked, his disgruntlement fading momentarily into surprise. "You can?"

 _No_ , Will though. _Of course not, obviously._ But Ellis didn't need to know that. He needed to learn a lesson, learn that he needed to take better care of his own body because some injuries weren't so easy to fix as with a cube of ambrosia and a snap of the finger. He nodded. "You've got to take it slow, you know? Otherwise, when you're in a real battle and you really need it, it won't work as well."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously." Will felt only a twinge of guilt for his white lie, but smothered it easily enough. Apollo was the God of Truth as much as he was of the Sun, of the healing arts, of music and archery, and for that reason most of the other demigods assumed they were ever-truthful and obligatorily sincere. Which was a lie.

Of course it was a lie. But the children of Apollo didn't need to tell everyone that, just as they didn't need to tell anyone that they may just abuse that belief from time to time. Never for malicious or underhanded reasons, of course, but only for when was really necessary. For when such a lie was actually directly beneficial to their wellbeing, like convincing a patient that they needed to reduce their use of ambrosia to avoid becoming too reliant upon it. Or when they added an extra day of medication onto a prescription just in case with the warning that it _must be taken._ Or when they had to explain that no, cabin seven did not spend every Saturday night snacking on the jellybeans supposedly reserved for the diabetics of the camp while they stayed up late to watch bad medical soap operas. Lies should only be used when _truly_ necessary.

Before him, Ellis scratched at his head, frowning thoughtfully for a moment before he sighed. "Alright, then. But tomorrow?"

Will nodded, already turning away from the other boy. "Tomorrow you should be right. Maybe."

"Great," Ellis replied, though he hardly seemed enthusiastic. "Looking forward to it." His shoulders only slumped further as he turned and limped away.

Shaking his head, Will went back to slipping his boots on. He'd been readying himself to head on down to a late breakfast when Ellis bombarded him with his enthusiastic display of wellness. The rest of his half-siblings, most of whom took their meals with one another in a show of familial camaraderie, had slowly trickled away as Ellis monopolised Will's attention. They were quite a substantial squad given that it was the Christmas holidays and, as always happened during the holiday period, the residents at camp increased in number exponentially. None of them lingered, however, and though most did offer him sympathetic glances over their shoulder, none stayed to wait for him.

Will couldn't blame them. He wasn't particularly inclined to listen to his patient insist that he was better when he obviously wasn't, that he could run when he obviously couldn't, and that he should be able to accept Sherman Yang's challenge to a fight later that morning with, obviously, he shouldn't. If Will hadn't been head of the Apollo cabin and the primary vitakinetic of the camp then he would probably have escaped Ellis' pleading too.

No, Will didn't blame his friends and siblings. But it would have been nice to have someone waiting to walk down to breakfast with.

The passing thought drew another to the forefront of his mind, and, as he stood and stomped his feet more comfortably into his trainers, Will glanced towards Hades' cabin three down from his own. With dark walls of obsidian, steeple roof and morbidly-strung skull hanging above the door, to say nothing of the flickering green torches that burned constantly on either side of the steps, it was far from being the most approachable of cabins. Far from the most welcoming or even welcoming in the slightest. Not like Apollo's cabin that seemed to radiate light and the warmth of the sun itself.

Even so, Will couldn't withhold the urge to smile that settled upon his lips as his attention was caught by the blacked-out windows, the firmly fastened door that seemed to forbid intrusion. Few would dare to approach cabin thirteen willingly, and Will was quite proud of the fact that he was one of those who did. Someone had to drag Nico out of the dark depth of within every now and then, even if just to ensure he hadn't curled up and died for simply forgetting to eat.

Not that such a reason was the only one that urged Will to knock on the heavy black door every other morning.

He didn't make immediately for the cabin, however, despite the fact that he was almost certain that Nico hadn't drawn himself from the shadows within as of yet that day. He often seemed disinclined to, though more because he claimed that he didn't like the sun than because he wished to avoid the other campers. Who didn't like the sun? What was with that, anyway?

No, Will didn't approach the cabin. For though he smiled he felt a hint of awkwardness at doing so, an awkwardness that had arisen but days before.

Things had changed over the past months, and not only regarding the recovery from the battle against the Roman legions. Will didn't think he was the only one who felt noticeably smaller, more diminutive, with the understanding that the Romans even existed in the first place, but that didn't really alter the overall effect. The world seemed suddenly… bigger. Vaster. More secretive. If the Romans existed, what other secrets did too? Secrets that hadn't yet been uncovered? Was there a kingdom of modern day Mayans secreted somewhere, or some Neo-Vikings hidden undercover in Scandinavia or something?

There were no answers to such questions so solely questions they remained. The only difference was that most campers just happened to be a little more open-minded to the impossible of late. It was probably one of the reasons that Ellis took Will's word about the ambrosia so readily. The gullibility of demigods had certainly skyrocketed over the past few months.

What had changed mostly for Will, however, was the acquisition of his newest shadow. He'd made it his personal vendetta to draw Nico di Angelo from his self-imposed isolation, to tug him from his shell and to show the rest of Camp Half-Blood that, yes, he did appear to fluctuate solely between frowning and glaring much of the time, yes he was a hella-powerful son of one of the Big Three and yes, his social skills left more than a little bit to be desired. But he was more than that. So much more, Will had come to discover since August. A discovery that still set a warm flush seeping through his chest that seemed to deliberately deny the chill of the surrounding winter.

But things had been awkward between them for the past few days. Or at least _Will_ thought that they had been awkward. He hadn't allowed himself to show his discomfort, not around the rest of the campers and certainly not around Nico. That would just make the awkwardness descend into the embarrassment that had very nearly debilitated Will three days earlier.

The worst of it was that Nico… Nico hadn't said anything about it the incident that had taken up residence at the forefront of Will's mind, not when it had happened and not since. Either he'd deliberately blocked what Will considered was as good as a confession of feelings on his part from his mind or he had unconsciously done so. Will wasn't sure which would be worse.

But then, at least Nico wasn't ignoring him. He acted the same sarcastic, faintly surly and largely socially inept self he always did. Will supposed he had that to be thankful for at least. Besides, he'd come to the understanding that Nico simply did that sometimes; he was unlikely to confront a significant issue without thinking it over in the privacy of his own mind.

 _Well_ , Will thought, tightening his scarf around his neck. _It's been three days. Surely that's long enough, right?_ And despite his nervousness, he smiled as he firmed himself and made his decision. Yes. He would ask Nico. Today, and there was no way that the son of Hades could avoid him. Maybe it was a good thing that Ellis had waylaid him, so that the rest of his half-siblings would leave?

Will was halfway across the square between the cabins, bypassing Hestia's hearth when the door to Hades' cabin burst open. Will paused in step at the sight of Nico, smile widening and already raising a hand in greeting before he realised that Nico didn't even notice him. He leapt down the steps of the cabin, dressed in little more than his usual black bombers jacket and jeans, and took off at a tearing pace. The shower of snow kicked up by his passage was testimony to the speed of his flight. Will was left blinked in stunned confusion for a moment as he watched the familiar figure of Nico di Angelo disappearing across the campgrounds at a remarkable pace.

Only for a second, though. Only for a second he remained before Will was springing into a run himself, falling into Nico's footsteps as he did. He'd only caught a glimpse, but he didn't like the expression he'd seen upon Nico's face. It was grief-stricken and overwhelmingly heartbroken, even physically pained. What had happened? What could make him so upset and urge him to flee in such a hurry?

It wasn't… it wasn't because of Will, was it?

The thought drew an upwelling of fear from Will and he immediately urged himself to run faster. Not that it made much of a difference; toothpick that Nico was, he still seemed capable of running at a ridiculously fast pace when he felt inclined. Will barely glanced at the demigods he tore past, raising a hand in acknowledgement of the half-heard words of "Will, where are you -?" and "Hey, are you al -?"

Seconds into his chase, Will saw Nico skid to a stop in a snow flurry as though he'd hit a brick wall. He saw him freeze but for his heavy breathing that shook the taut lines of his back as though he was shivering. And he saw the shadows spring into life at his feet, curl with reaching tendrils around him in their familiar embrace as they drew him from sight.

"Nico!" Will cried out, raising a desperate hand and hoping his voice didn't sound as mournful as he felt. His feet carried him forwards without his further instruction. Not that it made a difference. It didn't matter how fast he ran; he was too slow.

Nico glanced towards him at the last second, and Will was nearly thrown to a halt but his expression once more. Drawn and pained, Will could swear that Nico was on the verge of tears. The faint glisten to his eyes only emphasised the impression and Nico… Nico never cried. He made a point of swearing he'd never cry around another person, with the unspoken _again_ heard but unmentioned. But it was only a brief glimpse, a picture-snapping moment, and then the shadows swallowed him entirely and he disappeared.

Will skidded to a stop in the mess of snow Nico had left behind. He was breathing heavily, though more from distress than from the short flight he'd undertaken. He stared blankly at his feet for a moment before, in slow motions, he turned on the spot. Gone. Yes, Nico was definitely gone.

He barely heard the questioning exclamations of the campers at the volleyball court to his right as they asked him what was wrong. He didn't glance up at Lou Ellen's call from the amphitheatre in the opposite direction where she tossed around bright sparks of magic with her half-siblings. Will felt nothing but numbness that faded slowly into horror barely stemmed from overwhelming him by confusion and just a little anger.

Nico had left. After months of Will striving to make him stay, he'd left. And Will didn't know exactly why, what had caused it but…

It must have been him. It must have been what had happened but days before. Nico's reply was finally given, he'd finally broken their mutual silence and spoken, and Will felt himself, as he so rarely did, sinking with muddy despair.

Of each time that Will had messed up – or thought he'd messed up – he thought that this one was the most to blame. Was it just the one, or a culmination of things that Nico, with his blank-faced hesitancy to accept anyone's friendship, couldn't handle?

Will's mind clambered and pointed accusingly at each and every time that he had messed up, each time he'd _thought_ he'd messed up, and he cursed himself for it. Biting his lip to withhold his own upwelling of sorrow and regret, Will turned back towards cabin number seven. It hurt. It hurt to have a possibility stemmed before it had a chance to take root, even if it was only just a possibility. It hurt that Nico didn't like him in the way that he did, didn't like him enough to stay.

Will found he wasn't so enthusiastic for breakfast as he had been but moments before. Not for the food nor the company. For the first time in a long time, he found he didn't much want any company at all.

* * *

A/N: Hi everyone! Thanks for taking a look at my new story! I hope you enjoyed it, and it wasn't too confusing. Yeah, it's a little vague in areas, but I meant it to be like that :)

If you get a chance, please take a moment to comment. I would much appreciate it! Thank you xx


	2. Chapter 2 - Was It The Teasing?

A/N: This chapter contains mention of several OCs, most of which are largely irrelevant and just a name. No drama, you really don't have to remember them. Or, if you do, I'll make sure they are distinctive. Hope that doesn't annoy anyone greatly :)

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Was It The Teasing?**

 ** _~August~_**

"… probably need some more bandages for the Ares kids because, you know, they'll most likely try to get on their feet again before they're ready. I talked to Taylor and she said that her cabin's fine now – nothing worse than a couple of bumps and scrapes leftover, thank the Gods – so that's Dionysus' cabin all set, and from what I hear most of Hypnos' cabin were out of action for the majority of the battle anyway so I doubt they'll need any further healing…"

Will listened to little Fionn Campbell as she relayed the medical status of the campers by cabin one after another. Such was always the way after a big battle – or so Will had been led to believe, having only experienced a few of what could truly be termed 'big' for himself – and Fionn was making an efficient and very objective attempt at relaying all necessary information. Though what the pervasive case of dandruff that she was leading into had to do with anything – apparently the children of Demeter were experiencing an influx–was a little questionable.

Will only listened with half an ear, though, as his other attention was instead being drawn to Nico di Angelo where he spoke to Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase a little ways down the hill. He'd hastened from Will's side not moments before with a brief assurance that "by the River Styx" he'd be right back. In that time, Fionn had approached him and taken the opportunity to bombard him with a quick recap of the camp's medical needs as they had changed since the conclusion of the battle two days before. As if Will hadn't _just_ come from the infirmary himself.

She was indeed very efficient. Almost too efficient for the speed at which she spoke. Notated reports were always the better option when it came to Fionn. Especially because it made it easier for Will to gloss over the less important details, like the fact that Joel Hopkins was making a habit of picking at his butterfly stitches and that was the reason his arm was now effectively wearing an pair of Elizabethan collars around his hands. Will often wondered if she had been zapped with a sharp dose of electricity for her speed and twitchiness, an impression only enhanced by the crazy spiking of her short, black pixie cut.

As Fionn made to initiate a long-winded spiel about how she'd allocated Bea Tanner to being the resident syringe-cleaner, Will held up his hand. "That's fantastic, Fionn. Thanks so much for the update."

Fionn stuttered to a halt. She blinked for a moment as though wondering what had caused her to stop speaking before flashing Will her usual cheery grin. "No problems. If you'd like me to –"

"Did you write down all the info on the charts?"

Nodding, Fionn jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "Yeah, but I left them back at our cabin because I didn't want to take it out in case it got lost and then we wouldn't know of the variation in status of all of our patients when next check-up came about and then we'd have to ask –"

"Sounds good," Will interrupted her. "Thanks a heap for that, Fionn. You're off duty unless you can think of anything else that needs doing."

"Oh," Fionn blinked in her wide-eyed expression that always appeared slightly startled and spasmodically alert before grinning once more. "No, I think that's all I've got."

"Great. Then you can just…" Will trailed off as, before he'd even finished speaking, Fionn turned on her heel and sprung off to the Gods only knew where. She was incredibly bouncy, even for a nine-year-old.

Shaking his head fondly for his departing half-sister, Will turned and glanced over his shoulder towards Nico once more. He hardly knew the other boy, not really, but for whatever reason felt an obligation of sorts to ensure he had adequate company. Will didn't like seeing people by themselves, didn't like to see others hurting, and always found the incessant sadness and almost aggressive distancing of the son of Hades to be… disputable.

Not that that was the only reason he was currently shadowing Nico. He'd never had a whole lot to do with him, despite the fact that, for some unknown reason, he fascinated Will. Just a little bit. Or maybe a bit more than a little bit. Even as a distant ghost of sorts, Will had noticed him over the years, slinking between shadows and always on the periphery of notice. Until one deliberately made an effort to notice him, that was. And Will had always found that which was mysterious, hidden and private, to be unwaveringly curious.

And there was the fact that he _very_ much needed to be seen to. By a medical specialist, that was. Will was quite looking forward to enforcing bed rest upon the resident Ghost King for the next three days – and he would make sure it was three days, too – to ensure that Nico didn't keel over. And it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that maybe, just maybe, Will might have found teasing him more enjoyable than it probably should be. But Nico was just so fun to tease. What could he say?

Shaking his head as his periphery noticed Fionn disappear into a group of like-minded youngsters, he trained his attention fully back onto where Nico was talking with Percy and Annabeth. Or had been talking, for he was now making his way back up the hill towards Will's side, hands in pockets and head bowed. Although… was it Will's imagination or was there a slight smile on his face?

For some reason, disgruntlement muttered a string of cutting grumbles in the back of his mind. Nico was smiling? _Now_ he was smiling? Why was that, and why after coming back from talking to Percy? Will had never seen Nico smile and had hoped to be the one to fix that malady. Will was the doctor; he was supposed to be the one to ix people. It was frustrating that Percy, who he had to admit was a more than affable guy, had been the one to do it.

"You're looking happy," he called to Nico as the son of Hades stepped into hearing distance. Will kept his tone light, as casual as he always maintained, and even adopted an easy grin of his own.

That smile widened as Nico snapped his gaze towards him and immediately scowled in an expression of petulance. _That_ was an expression that Will was becoming accustomed to seeing on his face. It wasn't anywhere near as annoying as it might have been if it was worn on another person, and mostly because Will was just happy to see it replace the cool detachedness that had been the primary façade Will had seen Nico wear hitherto.

With a glance around himself, as though ensuring that no one had overheard Will's mortifying suggestion, Nico hunched his shoulders slightly and let his scowl slip into an all-out glare. Even that made Will smile, more genuinely this time. "Who's happy?"

"You. Obviously."

"You're delusional."

"I'm not. You're just being an idiot for not realising it yourself."

Nico halted at his side, hooding his eyelids condescendingly. "If anyone's an idiot it's you. There's definitely something going on up top with you and I think you should get it checked out. Maybe take yourself to the infirmary for once."

"I'm perfectly healthy," Will replied with a widening of his smile. "Tip-top shape and all that."

"Right," Nico drawled slowly, and though he kept a good foot of distance between them, Will was gratified to see that he fell into step alongside him as they headed back in the direction of the Apollo cabin. It was a necessity, given that the infirmary was still filled and, as historically happened when overflowing with patients, the Apollo cabin offered its beds to the patients in need.

Even after two days it was still abuzz with activity. Cabin seven was one of the plainest of those ringing Hestia's hearth, but it was certainly the most noticeable since the battle. Every minute or so would see campers walking or running or stumbling through the doors, bandaged or carrying bandages, and most calling out a greeting to those inside or a farewell as they left the brightly lit interior.

Will had to pause as the Athena siblings, Gina and Dana Mendez, squeezed through the doorway of the cabin shoulder to shoulder and only just escaping the clutches of Kyle Hogin as he made a grab for them with a word that they "should probably just stay another day, just in case!" Their gleeful laughter of delight followed their departure and Kyle was left shaking his head and scrubbing a hand over his head. He gave Will a weary smile, rolled his eyes with the customary long-suffering cast that all children of Apollo practiced from a young age, before disappearing back indoors. The wooden door, appearing nothing if not that of a barn, bounced once before closing.

"I'm not going in there."

Will glanced to his side – no, behind him, because Nico had apparently retreated several steps – and immediately propped his hands upon his hips. "You promised."

"No, I didn't."

"Well, you didn't argue when I said you were coming."

"That's an entirely different thing."

Will sighed. _Should I? Is it really the only option?_ Because really, he could see no other way to get Nico over the threshold. Darting a hand forward, too fast for Nico to manage more that a lurching attempt at avoiding the attack, Will grabbed his upped arm and hauled him through the door. Quite the opposite to what Nico perhaps hoped to elicit, Will only grinned at his cursing and spluttering as he drew him along in his wake.

The rows of beds, more than was usually bulking out their makeshift, secondary infirmary, were still almost entirely occupied with sleepers and wounded. Children of Apollo wove down the aisle in what could have been a practiced dance, easily bypassing their fellows and carrying slices of ambrosia and sippy-cups of nectar as often as bottled paper cups of medication, syringes in bottles and disinfectant wipes. Curtains were strung from the golden-white walls, half shielding each bed to afford minimalistic privacy, and gave the impression of nothing so much as a cloud-stuffed farmhouse. The impression was only intensified by wooden walls, polished floors, and the steeple roof criss-crossed by rafters.

Will nodded in greeting at his siblings as he passed them, listened with half an ear as Fionn – hadn't he told her to get some rest? Or at least to take some time off? – called out something so fast and garbled that he couldn't make it out. It was with increasing difficulty that he finally managed to draw Nico to one of the last beds along the parallel rows and it took a weighty shove to snap his knees from their locked position and force him into sitting on the mattress. Nico glared up at him for a moment, the next second darting a glance around the surrounds of the cabin's interior with a wary gaze as though he expected ghosts to spring from the walls. No, wait, he would probably welcome ghosts over his fellow campers, what with being the Ghost King and all that.

He flipped his gaze back to Will once more, scowl intensifying. Will beamed. And kept on beaming until the scowl finally eased somewhat into the picture of disgruntlement. Nico slumped slightly in his seat, turning his glare sidelong. "Alright. You win."

"Of course I do," Will nodded. He hadn't been aware they had truly been competing but – no, wait, yes he had. It had simply been just so obvious that he _would_ win that it hadn't felt all that much like it. "Now, are you going to be compliant, or do I have to call for a hand to pin you down to the hospital bed?"

Nico shifted uneasily at the suggestion, then, still glancing warily around the room, made a show of slipping his shoes off. "No, no pinning, please."

"Wonderful," Will smiled. It really was so much fun to tease him. "Now, up on the bed properly if you please. Doctor's orders."

Nico paused in the act of slipping his second shoe off. He regarded Will with that hooded stare and faintly petulant scowl once more. "You do realise that I can literally take myself out of here any second I want, right?"

"But you won't," Will said, hand propping onto his hips once more. "Because I'm the head medic at camp and anyone who's sick has to follow my directions exactly. Ask Chiron, he'll tell you."

"I have a feeling I'm going to be hearing that a fair bit from now on," Nico mumbled.

"Hear what?"

"Your 'head medic' preach. Does it actually work for you?"

Will shrugged, attempting a modest smile that probably more accurately resembled a smirk. "Most of the time."

"How exactly did _you_ get appointed the position, anyway?" Nico asked accusingly.

Will shrugged once more, disregarding the slight as just another amusement. Because really, it was kind of funny to see Nico trying to turn the tables. "It's a long story. Remind me to tell it to you some day."

"Looking forward to it," Nico grumbled in a way that suggested he was anything but.

Despite his continued mutters, the likes of which Will had to forcibly tune his ears away from for fear of snickering at the mentions of "stupidly entitled Apollo prats" and "like to see how he handles an army of overprotective zombie warriors", Nico did comply with Will's urging to fold himself more appropriately on the bed. It was almost cute to think that Nico considered himself _intimidating_. Even stranger to think that Will, somehow, from a distance, might have once thought him as such. Really, the notion was almost ridiculous each further moment that Will spent with him.

With the usual almost-sixth sense of a child of Apollo, Will scanned Nico for his status as he fidgeted into a more comfortable seat on the plumped pillows and struggled to untuck the military-tight blankets. As he did, Will found his smile fading to a frown. He had been right in suggesting that Nico spend some quality time in the infirmary.

The son of Hades looked like death. Literally, and Will was just a little too familiar with what that looked like after a few close encounters with zombies and the like over the past few days. His skin was so pale it was almost grey and there were dark shadows under his eyes, eyes that sat deep and hollow in his face. He looked worn and exhausted, and was most likely malnourished, an overall impression only intensified by his evident disgruntlement.

Throughout his assessment, Will barely acknowledged the focus of that disgruntlement. It was only when Kyle stepped up to the bed next to them and leant over the dozing figure of Yvonne Mahal – she woke with a snort that would have put an elephant to shame and nearly smacked Kyle in the face when she sat up – that the reason for Nico's discomfort became apparent. Will glanced over his shoulder, following the nervously sceptical gaze Nico trained upon Kyle's back. Was it just that Kyle was a medic and hence held the power to poke and prod him with stethoscopes and paddle pop sticks? Or was it just the fact that Nico was surrounded by so many people that he disliked?

Sighing, Will shook his head and made an exaggerated display of tugging one of the cloud-like curtains between the beds. "There's nothing wrong with being around other people, you know," he said, striving to keep the accusation out of his tone. He wasn't sure he managed so well. He didn't want to ask the obvious _"why don't you like other people?"_ because Gods, he wasn't that insensitive, but he felt he had to say _some_ thing. "Just because it's how everyone perceives you doesn't mean you have to actually be a loner."

"I'm not a loner," Nico muttered, settling himself back against the pillows of the bed and folding his arms. It was the same petulant expression he'd worn but minutes before. "I talk to people."

"Really? Who?" Will couldn't help but ask. For once he was genuinely curious rather than just driven by the incessant demand to tease the other boy.

"Like Jason, and Reyna, and Hazel and Annabeth." Nico paused for a moment, then blurted out as though slightly embarrassed. "And Percy."

Will pretended to be concentrating upon the little cup of vitamins that he'd pulled from his pocket, sorting through the multi-coloured pills. It was that or frown at Nico's words, and at the slight flush that he didn't quite hide at the mention of Percy's name. "How long's that been going on for, then?"

Nico's mouth opened and closed objectionably for a moment before he managed to reply. "It's none of your business, Solace."

Will shrugged, feeling the smile that seemed prone to arising every time he prodded Nico into response appear once more. "Just trying to keep you healthy, di Angelo. And social wellbeing is just as important as physical health."

"Oh, so you're a therapist now?"

"The best there is on camp, Death Boy," Will grinned, handing over the little cup of vitamins and a glass of water.

Nico snatched them from him with a glare. "Don't call me 'Death Boy'," he ordered, before tossing back the pills and the water in one gulp.

Will couldn't help but laugh, his good humour rapidly restored. Teasing Nico, and even just being in the company of the other boy who was so vastly different to literally everyone else on camp, was sort of… relieving. After days of endless work in both infirmaries, it was nice to have a bit of a change of pace. He'd strap Nico to the bed if that was what it took to keep him there and actually get enough sleep to make him resemble something other than the zombie-guise that he currently wore.

Not that he wouldn't rather Nico just stayed because he was told to. And to do that, Will kept up a steady stream of chatter as he checked Nico's vitals, as he filled out his chart, as he simply sat on the end of the bed when the rest of his duties were done. And, though Nico still stared at every passing Apollo camper with thinly veiled dislike that held more than a little wariness, Will thought that he did settle. Once he was sure Nico almost smiled before he evidently realised he 'shouldn't'.

In reflection, Will wondered if maybe his teasing had been a little too much. Maybe, though Will had found it enjoyable, Nico truly had been as disgruntled and deterred as he had pretended to be. As Will had assumed he had 'pretended' to be. That while he had seemed to relax more and more as the afternoon went on it was only some and not quite enough. He'd seemed happier, more comfortable. Wasn't he?

Now, with Nico fleeing as though Will really had pushed him that bit too far, he wasn't so sure.

* * *

A/N: Thank you to my lovely reviewers! So nice to hear your words and that you enjoyed the first chapter. In response to some of your sort-of questions, this story is a bit of a step-by-step sequence of Will discovering - or trying to discover - exactly _why_ Nico took off. So the reason won't really be unearthed until the end, which might have been a bit obvious from this chapter. Sorry if that annoys anyone. Hope you still enjoy!

Once again, if anyone has even a second to leave a word, I would greatly appreciate it! I love to hear from you, regardless of what words they may be.


	3. Chapter 3 - Or The Mothering?

**Chapter 3: Or The Mothering?**

 ** _~September~_**

It could have been the mothering. Will supposed that could have been a significant part of the reason that Nico ran away. He didn't even consider how he'd acted to _be_ mothering or coddling until he really sat down and thought about it. And when he did think about it, about that one potential error in particular, one context in particular rose to mind.

It started when Will had begun to take notice of Nico at meal times. Dinner around the campfire was always a raucous affair in the holiday periods, what with so many bodies filling the table seats. The sheer noise of chatter, of cutlery clattering against plates and glasses dropped after sipping, of garbled conversation uttered through mouths stuffed to the brim with the delicious cuisine served by the wood nymphs was a distraction from the less obtrusive. It was more of a whirlwind of noise and excitement than a sedate, casual meal.

As September saw the departure of the majority of the campers, Will found himself one of only three children of Apollo remaining. Of a night, he would trip down to the dining pavilion alongside Austin and Kayla, and they would as a trio partake in their dinner at a noticeably more subdued rate. It was the same each night, and most nights would involve much of the same sequence, the same discussions, even the same seating arrangements.

Will would sit down with his face to the fire – because he always sat that way by force of habit in order to catch a glimpse of the entire cohort of campers – and drop his request to the passing wood nymphs. Always a healthy choice, because Will knew the importance of healthy eating, and he was always blessed with the most delicious form of that choice physically possible.

He would always sit on one side of the table while Austin and Kayla would sit upon the other for no other reason than habit once more. And they would make their offerings to the gods as a group, and then they would speak of the casual, the nonsensical, the largely irrelevant.

"I'm thinking of trying to brainwash Harley into contemplating less potentially fatal training games suggestions," Kayla would mention with a long-suffering sigh, plucking as she had a habit of doing at the streak of green in her hair.

Or Austin would mutter that, "I only managed to get an hour of sax practice in today. I always have more trouble sleeping when I haven't played for at least a couple of hours. You guys feel like joining me for a jam session after dinner?"

Or Will would ask if "Either of you two have heard from home lately? I haven't gotten a letter from Mum for about a week so I was thinking of taking a trip over to our PO box sometime tomorrow maybe."

All superficial and off-handed, nonchalant and inconsequential. Will loved his half-siblings, was probably closest to Austin and Kayla, but they never felt much of a need to fall into deeper and more heartfelt conversations. Not that they weren't comfortable with one another, but simply didn't feel the need. Will was comfortable, happy, and would bathe in the glow of friendly conversation as he ate and drew a detached, scanning gaze around the dining pavilion. And sometimes, more increasingly as the slower change of pace settled from abnormal to the norm, he would look around him at his cousins.

Will had only really noticed Nico at dinnertime when the greater portion of campers had withdrawn from Camp Half-Blood for the term. There were a few key residents that remained for most of the year, and Nico was evidently one of them. Alongside Austin and Kayla, Will was too; his mother was a high-up, internationally renowned neurosurgeon who, when Will had lived with her at their uptown terrace in Philadelphia, he'd barely seen a minute of every few days. He loved his mother, but it was lonely to spend so much time by himself. Not to mention dangerous, what with the whole demigod vs. savage monsters deal. So Will spent the greater portion of the year at camp, schooling most of the time online.

With the lessening of numbers, he noticed Nico standing out like a sore thumb from across the dining area. As usual, he was alone. Nico was almost always alone when not with Will – or at least he was now that Jason and Piper had left to visit Piper's dad in Los Angeles – and he didn't seem to suffer for the fact. In fact, he generally seemed more comfortable in isolation than with other people.

Personally, Will couldn't understand that. He loved the camaraderie of the demigods, could think of no better company than his half-siblings and cousins as they spent their time pursuing leisure activities from archery to singing and music practice to debating the finer points of medical lore. Even those that Will wasn't all that close with he heartily loved the company of. Never before Will joined Camp Half-Blood had he felt so comfortable with other people. As he had come to understand was true of most of demigods, he had always been a bit of an outcast amongst the children of his primary schools, amongst the distantly familiar neighbours of his street. Camp was different. Entirely different. And he loved it for that difference, embracing every chance he got to spend time with his siblings.

Nico was entirely different again. Will suspected it to be a product of his past, of that history of his shrouded in mystery that so many speculated on and yet so few genuinely knew anything about. Something about him actually being born in the early twentieth century – Will was still a little confused about the specifics of that rumour – and about the memory of his older sister Bianca, who had been a Hunter of Artemis before she... wasn't. That was a painful memory for Nico, Will had come to understand, even with what scant knowledge he had of the other boy. Since Bianca's death, Nico had been nothing but an quiet, self-ostracised wraith who drifted through camp and scared the bejesus out of everyone with his vanishing acts, or the shadowiness of his presence, or his general surliness. Even after spending time with him over the past few weeks Will could recognise him for what he was.

He hadn't always been like that, Will knew. Nico hadn't always been closed off, distant and distasteful of the presence of others. Will remembered from the memory of his arrival at camp, when he'd first seen Nico as nothing but another unfamiliar face arriving into the sea of the familiar. He remembered just barely, even if there was little else to recall but a face. A face, and the fact that he used to smile.

That had changed when Bianca had died. Not only did the seemingly amicable boy shut himself off from everyone but he didn't smile anymore. He didn't laugh. He hardly mixed with others and he only rarely talked when not directly spoken to. In fact, Will had noticed not long ago with a detached sort of surprise that the son of Hades had largely disappeared from camp entirely for a time. At the time of his noticing, Will hadn't considered Nico all that much more than to simply notice him.

He remembered now. In bits and pieces, Will recalled how Nico, the younger Nico, had once been. And in the way that he had come to recall that past boy, he had also reached the conclusion that he would do something about rekindling some of that lost joy and enthusiasm for life that had once been a part of him. That was always once a part of every child. Even if he did so like to tease him into frowning and spearing Will with that frankly amusing glare, the desire to make him happy once more trounced that. A little bit, if not a lot.

There was barely a hint of happiness, of that long-lost enthusiasm from what Will could make out as he munched on his dinner and watched Nico from across the campfire. Increasingly watched him, as he had been doing so throughout the week. What little enthusiasm he did have seemed to be nothing if not a bodily response to the fact that he was filling his belly. He looked terribly solitary seated alone at that big table, staring listlessly ahead of himself and barely appearing to notice the scattering of other campers conversing at the surrounding tables. For a time, Will recalled, his sister and her boyfriend had joined him at the Hades table. Before they left for Camp Jupiter several weeks before, that was, and then three became one.

It wasn't right. Will didn't know where the thought came from, nor why he would feel such a need to make Nico happy. He put it down for his natural inclination to make people healthy; his father's legacy to him had always been grounded in medicine and healing, and it seemed to surpass the simple physical caring that Apollo was recognised for.

Starting to his feet, Will picked up his plate of half-finished lasagne and started across the clearing. Kayla's surprised, "Where are you going?" behind him only slowed him long enough to glance over his shoulder and offer a smile and a vague wave before he skirted the fireplace and approached the Hades table.

Nico didn't appear to notice his approach, gaze down and poking at… what was that even? Some sort of biscuit? He looked half asleep, eyes downcast and chin propped on one hand as he picked at his dinner. He didn't even look up when Will dropped into the chair across from him.

A long moment of Will simply sitting and waiting to be noticed proved fruitless. It was a little vexing, all things told. No, Will and Nico didn't really know one another and they could hardly be considered that close, but they had been spending more time together of late. After the first few days of enforced bed rest, Will had suggested that Nico come around to the Apollo cabin a bit more often just to 'help out'. Nico had, surprisingly, taken him up on the suggestion. Almost every morning after breakfast Will would find Nico slipping through the doors to the Apollo cabin and easing into the general hubbub of sedate activity that buzzed throughout the rooms. Oftentimes he could be there for a good hour before anyone but Will noticed his presence.

Will had thought they had become, if not friends exactly, than at least marginally familiar with one another. Certainly familiar enough to acknowledge one another's presence when they sat down at the table across from them. It was strange that he _didn't_ respond, really, given how guarded Nico was around the slightest proximity to anyone.

Frowning, tapping his fork onto his plate – even the sharp ringing sound didn't draw Nico's attention – Will eventually reached across the table to poke him in the middle of his forehead. Nico started so violently that he almost overturned his plate as he snapped his attention upwards with wide eyes and Will saw –

"Are you listening to an Ipod?"

Will blinked incredulously as, without a hint of guilt at being sprung, Nico slipped what appeared to be a pair of camouflaged earphones from his ears. "What are you doing here?"

"You are. I wondered how you always managed to seem so detached from everyone at meal times." _Or dinnertime,_ he corrected in his head, for Will had never actually seen Nico at breakfast or lunch before. "You're deliberately ignoring everyone."

"Do you have a problem with that?" Nico asked, hooding his eyelids in what Will had come to realise as his go-to expression of condescension.

Will shook his head, more in incredulity than denial. "You could make an effort to try and talk to other people. I think it would do you go to work on your social skills."

"Oh, with all of my many dinner companions," Nico replied, glancing around at the admittedly empty seats that surrounded the Hades table. "Sure thing, Will, I'll get right onto that. And, I'll have you know, there's exactly nothing wrong with my social skills."

"The fact that people are more likely to scream and run than before have a simple conversation with you doesn't seem like a problem to you?"

"Maybe I like it that way."

"Or maybe you're just socially incompetent."

"From your perspective maybe. I happen to think I'm perfectly fine just the way I am." Nico paused, then narrowed his eyes. "Why do you even care?" Then he frowned. "And you didn't tell me: what exactly are you doing here?"

Will opened his mouth to reply then closed it an instant later. What could he say? Why was he there? Why did he care? Other than the fact that he thought Nico was interesting and that he'd like to drawn him from his self-imposed isolation a little to explore that interest? Other than that Will saw him as someone who was just a little – or a lot – socially and emotionally unravelled and Will wanted to _fix_ him? Somehow he doubted that Nico would respond positively to such sentiments.

So he shrugged and nonchalantly began forking at the remains of his lasagne. "You looked a bit pitifully lonely over here by yourself. Figured you'd want the company."

"I don't ever want company."

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Goth Boy."

"Don't call me 'Goth Boy'."

"Fine then, Emo Kid." Will couldn't help but grin, could only just restrain a chuckle as Nico scowled at him. "Come on, sitting here alone and listening to music while staring melancholically at your plate? That's emo."

"Melancholically? Big words, Medicine Man."

"Medicine Man?" Will raised an eyebrow, but Nico only dropped his gaze back to his plate, tucking his chin. He could swear, though, that he saw his scowl shift momentarily into smile, even if just for the barest of seconds. Will found that the hint of that smile was maybe even more interesting than his glare. "Seriously, though, an Ipod?"

"You have a problem with music?" Nico peered up at him. "You, a son of Apollo?"

"I told you, I'm not all that great at music," Will said. "I'm not incompetent – I mean, I can sing alright, and play the on our grand piano well enough and –"

"You actually have a grand piano in your cabin? How have I not even seen that?"

"Stop changing the subject," Will admonished. "I meant I'm surprised that you have an Ipod. It's common knowledge around camp that you're a techno retard."

"Gee, thanks," Nico replied, his eyes hooding once more. He didn't scowl, though, and Will was gratified to notice that he seemed more on the verge of smiling again than glaring. Even if that smile was more of a smirk.

"Well?"

Nico shrugged. "Ipods aren't exactly hard to manage. You just press a few buttons and let it play itself. Besides, I was desperate."

"What? Why desperate?"

"You have no idea how stupid some of the conversations are that go on around the campfire at dinner. And I have to listen to most of them because people talk so loudly." Nico shrugged once more. "It was a do or die kind of situation."

Will snorted, smiling as he shook his head and forked another mouthful of pasta into his mouth. "What do you listen to, then?"

"Only the best," Nico replied.

"Such as?"

"Jazz and Big Bands, mostly. Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday – the classics. Perry Como was always one of my favourites back when… back from ages ago. And for a change of pace I'll throw on some Welcome To Nightvale podcasts that Percy got me listening to."

Will opened his mouth to speak then paused, blinking. "Wait, what was that last one?"

Nico ignored him. "You have no idea how many stories I've heard just because I can't avoid hearing them. Did you know that Aphrodite's cabin has a secret spa that they blackmailed the Hephaestus cabin to building into their floor? Or that Ares' kids have a weird rite of passage deal where they're only allowed to sleep with their swords when they've proven that they can do it with the sword unsheathed and without cutting their own necks throughout the night."

"That's… brutal. What the hell?"

Nico nodded as though he had commented on nothing more interesting than the weather. "I know you Apollo kids eat the diabetics jelly beans, too, and have been trying for years to get Mr D to let you keep a stockpile of candy supplies 'for emergencies'."

"That's hardly a secret," Will muttered, though couldn't keep the sheepishness from his voice.

"I'm sure. And that's the reason that nobody else knows, of course."

"You're a mole," Will accused, jabbing his fork towards his dinner companion.

Nico shrugged a shoulder. "Not intentionally. I don't want to hear all that crap. Hence the Ipod."

"You're a dangerous person, di Angelo."

"That's what I've been trying to tell people. They just never listen." Nico paused for a moment to pick at the biscuits on his plate once more. Will thought it might have been bread of some kind that he'd simply torn to shreds. "You still think it's a good idea for me to visit your cabin?"

"Of course," Will assured him without even a second of pause. There was no thought in the matter; he liked Nico coming to visit, dark cloud, gloomy aura and all. He hadn't even had to think about it to reply. Besides, his attention had shifted, disregarding the suggestion behind the comment. "You know, you should probably eat something a little more substantial for dinner."

Nico glanced up at him, eyebrow quirked quizzically. "What?"

Will nodded to his plate. "Just bread? Really? What about vegetables, or protein? Do you always have the same type of bread?"

Blinking at him blankly, Nico didn't seem to compute his words for a moment. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Vitamins and minerals are an essential part of a balanced diet. You can't get most of them from eating – what is that, turkish bread? You could at least have a sandwich."

"Do you have any idea how stupid you sound right now?"

"Vitamins, Nico, vitamins and mineral." Will punctuated each word with a tap of his fork on his plate. The _ping_ rang sharply with each stab. "A well rounded, complete and balanced diet –"

"You've got me on so many pills I probably couldn't fit it all in. Do you have any idea how ridiculous it is that you make me have, what, fifteen different vitamins a day?"

"Seventeen," Will corrected. "And yes, I do know. But you need it, obviously. And mostly because you're not getting your quota from your diet –"

"Will?"

A voice over his shoulder caught Will's attention. He paused mid-sentence and glanced behind him. Kayla and Austin stood not a foot from the Hades table, eyes flickering in tandem between Will and Nico with very definitive _"What the –?"_ connotations. It was remarkable how similar they could look with a simple expression considering how vastly opposite they were.

"What's up?" Will asked.

"Um… why are you sitting at the Hades table?" Kayla asked, brow creasing as though the very statement baffled her.

Will glanced back towards Nico, who met his gaze with a similarly questioning stare. As though he hadn't even thought of the reason, despite the fact that Will had made a very deliberate gesture of ignoring his question when he asked it himself. "I guess I wanted to sit with Nico."

"But… but you're supposed to sit at your own table?" Austin sounded more like he was asking another question than posing a statement. "You're a kid of Apollo so you're supposed to sit at your own table. That's what you're supposed to do?"

Nico muttered something unintelligible beneath his breath that sounded distinctly unfavourable to Will's siblings' intelligence from what he could make out. Will pointedly ignored him. "Yeah, but Nico was by himself and he kind of looked lonely –"

"I wasn't lonely."

"- so I figured I'd come and join him. You can sit here too if you'd like."

"Are you inviting people to my table, Solace?"

Will glanced back towards Nico and smirked. "What, because you're so lacking in seats, is that it?" Nico only rolled his eyes.

It would remain an unknown as to whether Kayla and Austin would have indeed taken a seat at the Hades table. Personally, Will thought it unlikely but he would have liked to hope. People were still wary around Nico, just as they still regarded Hades as something of an evil god simply because he was associated with death. Will had made a very concerted effort years ago to attempt to detach himself from such assumptions.

Before they could answer, however, Chiron's voice rung across the pavilion. "Is there a problem?"

The buzz of conversation of the surrounding tables – barely more than a dozen other campers in total – hushed at his words. Will brushed aside the discomfort of being called upon and gave a casual shrug. "Just switching tables around, Chiron."

"Is there -?"

"Switching tables!"

All eyes swung towards Mr D where he sat at his own table, flanked by the only two of his own children that remained at camp throughout the entirety of the year. Even in the minimalistic glow of the campfire Will could make out his face flushing, though in anger, surprise or indigestion he wasn't sure. The portly god's hand was grasped white-knuckled around his ever-present can of Diet Coke.

"Um…" Will began.

"Demigods have sat at their godly parent's tables unwaveringly for generations. Generations!" He spluttered. Will was surprised to see him become so agitated – Mr D rarely invested effort into anything. "I will not see such traditions cast to the wind so carelessly. Not under my watch."

"Mr D, please calm yourself," Chiron attempted soothingly, but there wasn't much strength or determination in his tone.

Mr D shook his head so sharply Will almost feared for the safety of his neck. "No. Enough. Children of Apollo, back to your table at once."

"Look, I just figured since he was at the table all by himself –" Will began.

"No. Back! Now, before I have to throw you there myself."

Frankly, Will had to question Mr D's ability to throw anything anywhere, what with his general layabout behaviour. But then again, he was a God. Maybe he did have some unexpected skills as a taskmaster up his sleeve? It would be the first that Will had seen of it, certainly.

With a sigh, Will rose from his seat. He didn't want to leave Nico by himself, that much he felt even more fervently with the possibility of having his companionship rebuked and removed. But by the same token he didn't think that arguing with Mr D was going to change anything, not when it was so late in the evening that he was effectively drunk on a caffeine high and more than halfway towards manic. He would likely need an army of sorts to change his mind.

"Sorry, Nico," he muttered with genuine regret.

Nico regarded him for once without the faintest hint of a glare. Curiously, it seemed, as though he was trying to puzzle Will out. Then he gave a one-shouldered shrug. "Doesn't matter."

"No, seriously. I would have liked to sit with you, but –"

"It's fine, Will," Nico overrode him. Not with cruelty or in a derogatory mutter. He seemed sincerely obliging for once.

Will nodded, frowning as he picked up his plate and made his way back to the Apollo table alongside Austin and Kayla. He couldn't help but glance over his shoulder apologetically to Nico several times, however, nor repeatedly throughout the rest of dinner. It was only slightly mollifying to notice that Nico met his gaze curiously, thoughtfully, almost every time. He didn't even put his earphones back in.

Still, Will couldn't help but spare a frown or two for Mr D as, apparently recovered from his bout of indignation, he had proceeded to fall back to sculling his Coke in between mouthfuls of grapes and cheese-and-quince-paste crackers. Maybe the next night he would try again and have a better chance of it.

* * *

As it turned out, Will didn't need to attempt a repeat performance following night. Not because Mr D managed to grow a heart from somewhere, or gain some leniency. No, it was because not minutes after he'd sat down at the Apollo table, barely seconds after returning from burning his offering, Nico arrived and folded himself silently into the seat beside Will.

"Um…" Kayla attempted and failed to speak, likely quelled by the brief glance that Nico sent her way. For such a skinny slip of a kid, he sure did a decent job at intimidation. To everyone but Will, at least. He couldn't help but find it a little funny.

"Nice of you to join us," Will supplied instead, striving for casual. "What brought this about?"

Nico shrugged. "If you were making the effort to come to my table with the sorry excuse of trying to rid me of _my_ loneliness, you surely must have been compensating for something on your end." He paused and glanced between Austin and Kayla. Both stared back at him blankly. "Obviously you're lacking in intelligent conversation."

Will's half-brother and sister took barely a moment to respond to the insult. "Hey!" Kayla exclaimed, loud enough for the single word to echo around the pavilion, while Austin sniffed with the words "Intelligence shouldn't just be judged by the level of conversation."

Nico effectively ignored both retaliations, and set about picking apart the hunk of bread that the wood nymphs served him moments later. It looked like sourdough tonight, though the variation did little to stem Will's frown and rising objections.

They were barely minutes into their meal when their happy discordance was disrupted. The Apollo table itself had quickly descended into a battle of sorts with Will attempting to load some of his salad onto Nico's plate because "Dammit, you need more vegetables. Vegetables! Haven't you ever heard of a the health benefits of your greens?" and Nico struggling to hold said plate aloft and out of reach with what was perhaps the most worried expression Will had even seen on his face. Kayla joined the fray with surprising alacrity, though Will couldn't exactly approve of the fact that she was egging _Nico_ onwards, while Austin only watched with something rapidly approaching a grin and mutters of his agreement to Will's words.

Mr D put a very abrupt end to their antics with a stumbling collision to their table and a spluttering objection. He jabbed a finger at Nico. "You! What are you doing? What did I say last night?!"

Nico stared up at Mr D from where he slumped half-across the table to escape Will's momentarily frozen chasing. Will had to admire that in the face of Mr D's bluster – he was apparently so infuriated that his physical form was flickering between several different guises, all of them purple-faced and spitting – he appeared not in the least bit cowed. "You said Will and the Apollo kids had to go back to their table."

"All demigods! All – tradition! I said that we stick by _tradition_ and demigods sit at _their own tables_!"

"Well, technically Hades' table isn't _my_ table," Nico pointed out with a mutter. Austin snickered.

As Mr D stared in momentary incomprehension, likely not anticipating retaliation in the face of his anger, or perhaps simply not from Nico, Chiron sighed. He'd followed behind the god, towering over him from behind with arms folded and a wearily exasperated expression on his face. "Nico, please."

"Yes, Chiron?"

"Must you deliberately distress your camp director?"

"I don't really see how it's such a problem."

"Tradition!" Mr D spluttered, as though his brain was short-circuiting and that was the only word that managed to seep through his sparking thoughts.

Chiron spared him a glance, weathered face and weary expression not entirely hidden beneath his greying beard. "If you would be so kind."

For a moment, Will didn't think that Nico would reply. He certainly didn't think that he would go so far as to comply with Chiron's request. Nico was nothing if not generally objectionable; he seemed intent on subverting just about every camp rule and expectation just for the heck of it. Will couldn't remember the last time he'd actually participated in the camp's training games. He seemed suspiciously absent most of the time, and it was only because he dropped by the infirmary every day and partook of dinner that Will even saw him at all.

But after seconds of a Mexican standoff, Nico finally nodded his head. Glancing towards Will, he shrugged. "Sorry to abandon you to your siblings. Maybe Mr D might change his mind when he realises that sitting with me might actually be a good idea after all?"

There was something slightly foreshadowing in his tone, just slightly ominous, and it was that which distracted Will from the confusion of his words as a whole. Then Nico picked up his plate, spun around in his seat and ghosted over to the Hades table. Chiron watched him go with a frown that looked faintly suspicious, as though he'd expected more of a fight, while Mr D seemed to slowly deflate like an untied balloon.

As it turned out, Chiron was right in his suspicions.

Barely five minutes later, as Will continued to frown at his plate and listen to Kayla's unexpected complaints as to Mr D's insistence, the first zombie appeared. Will only noticed it at all because Oliver Westcomb at the Aphrodite table uttered a shriek that could have woken the dead had it not obviously already been awakened.

Will whipped his attention towards the source of Oliver's distress and he felt his eyes pop open. The zombie appeared to be a young man experiencing a rather distressing degree of decay, eyes dull and blankly staring. His skin was blue-grey where it wasn't hanging from his bones in fleshy strings to reveal white flesh that looked like cooked chicken beneath. A crack in the stone floor of the pavilion, trailing dirt in the zombie's wake, indicated from where he had arisen if anyone had any doubts. The trail of dirt scattered on the ground behind him as he lumbered his way in staggering steps through the pavilion with single-minded determination.

And, naturally, settled himself down at the Hades table. Nico, who appeared to have refitted himself with his earphones, didn't even glance up at his arrival.

The entirety of the rest of the camp stared with wide eyes at the newest arrival. Forks hung suspended in the air and mouths fell open. The brief arousal of fear, triggered by the Aphrodite table, had descended into blank-faced confusion. Confusion that only grew and mixed with a very prevalent discomfort and barely concealed flinches as a second zombie, of a middle aged woman wearing a muumuu of sorts, dragged herself through another snapping, yawning crack in the floor and slumped her way towards the Hades table. She fell silently into the seat beside the zombie-man.

Then a skeleton – a full skeleton, not a lick of flesh to his bony frame – arrived, to be followed by an elderly man whose eyes had been completely plucked out, then what looked like ten year old half hidden by an admirable curtain of matted hair and visibly missing most of his fingers fingers, then another skeleton, then more zombies until the Hades table was fit to bursting with occupants that creaked it their seats and muttered in indecipherable words as though conversing over their absent meals. Throughout it all, Nico glanced up only once, entirely nonchalantly, and even then not towards the zombies but towards Dionysus' table. Will wondered if he was the only one to hear his unspoken words: _"See? Look what's happened now."_

As if Nico hadn't very well do it on purpose.

"Nico," Chiron finally said after minutes of silence and staring had ensued. Will didn't think that anyone would be likely to continue with their meals after witnessing such a morbid sight. There was something discomforting about watching a teenage girl pick flays of her own skin off her fingers and drop them like lint onto the centre of her dining table, something that roiled the gut and made Will's kebab look distinctly less appetising. "What is this?"

"What is what?" Nico said innocently, already flipping his headphones to drop around his neck as though he'd been waiting for someone to start talking. His voice was low in his usual quiet monotone, though Will could swear there was a quaver of amusement buried there somewhere. Austin gave a little peep laughter, slightly hysterical, to which sentiment Will could only agree. Innocent? No, Will sincerely doubted Nico's innocence in such an instance.

"The – the _undead_ ," Mr D stuttered out. He hadn't drawn his gaze from the occupants of the Hades table, and though his cheeks were flushed once more it was with a very different kind of distress to what it had been. Will idly wondered that even gods apparently felt discomforted by the dead. Or, more correctly as Mr D had called them, the _un_ dead.

Nico glanced around himself as though seeing the other zombies for the first time. "Oh," he said shortly, quietly, then paused for a moment as though considering. "Oh, yeah, well… I guess since I can't have anyone else at my table then it just sort of happened that… someone who could would sit with me."

"You invited them?" Chiron asked.

"Not _… really_ ," Nico drawled contemplatively. He seemed remarkably comfortable as the centre of attention in such an instance, considering that Will knew for a fact that he abhorred being as such in most every other situation. Hence the usual glaring. In this instance, however, he seemed quite able to ignore the stares of his fellow demigods. "But you know, it is quite lonely at the table all by myself."

"What a crock of bull," Kayla whispered, though her lips quivered in a smile. "He's lonely? That happened fast. What about every other night, and every other second of the day that he's by himself?"

Chiron seemed to mirror Kayla's sentiment, though he didn't pull Nico up for it immediately. "Is that so?"

Before Nico could answer, Mr D shook himself from his stupor. "Get rid of them."

"Can't," Nico replied, casually folding a slip of bread into his mouth.

"What do you mean 'can't'?"

"I mean, I'm pretty sure they came because, you know, dinner guests and all, filling out the table, so they probably won't leave until dinner finishes. Maybe I have a mood disorder or something? Maybe they were just drawn by the radiating melancholy." Nico shrugged. "I can't really help it unless… I mean, I could just go and sit at another table."

Mr D's spluttering returned in full force, that reminiscent of the previous night rather than his objection of moments before. "You will do no such thing!"

"Then they'll probably be staying."

"They can't stay _here_."

"Would you prefer them at another table?" Nico asked with that same innocent expression. " _I_ thought that if they were going to sit at anyone's table it would be Hades', but if you wanted to spread them around a little bit I could ask them? Would you like one or two at your table, sir?"

The communal uneasy fidgeting of every other camper in their seats bespoke exactly how everyone else felt about that suggestion. Will found a slow grin spreading across his face at the performance. It was almost as amusing teasing Nico himself. Add that to the surprise of watching him act out as the openly objectionable teenager that he was, and it was a fantastic display. Will didn't think he'd ever heard Nico speak so much at one time before. Ever.

Mr D visibly twitched at Nico's suggestion. "No, I… I don't think that's necessary."

"Great," Nico replied, and offered a smile that made most of his fellow demigods recoil at the sight of. It wasn't a pleasant smile, despite the edge of triumph that coloured it. Without another word he turned back to his dinner. Will suspected that he was probably the only one who managed another mouthful after that.

Will didn't confront Nico about the zombies, or about the validity of his claim to 'loneliness'. The next day, he arrived in the Apollo cabin to wander around and fiddle with implements to the effect of 'helping' without really helping at all and Will didn't say anything. He didn't mention them at all, in fact, despite their exchange of conversation that was surprisingly more verbose than usual.

Kayla and Austin for once actually hung around Will and Nico as they conversed in an intermittent exchange, and Will was surprised but gratified to see that they appeared to have taken a turn towards him. Quite the opposite of what he had expected, given how most of the other campers appeared to respond. Everybody else seemed to have erected another firm, dissuading wall around themselves that jumped into sharp relief whenever Nico walked by or was even mentioned briefly in conversation. Will was quite proud of his siblings for that.

That dinner, however, the zombies and skeletons returned with a cracking of stone floors and a scrambling climb. They were different ones this time, or at least Will thought they were different – it was a little hard to tell with the skeletons, despite his knowledge of physiology. Chiron made another attempt at urging Nico to send them away, and Mr D another demand, but to as much success as the previous night.

They came the following night too. And the next. By the fourth, Will had come to expect the arrival of the stomach-turning animated cadavers just as he had the notion that he wouldn't be able to manage a single bit to eat in their presence.

On the fifth day, Mr D finally caved.

Will couldn't blame him, really. The zombie that dragged themself through the pavilion last, making their slogging way towards the Hades table, was even more gruesome that those previously arrived. He – or perhaps it was a she? – was missing an arm and a leg and crawled along the ground with a shambling slide of single, reaching hand and single, kicking foot. His clothes were a torn and shredded mess, hair mostly flaking in matted cords from his scalp, and grime streaked every bare inch of skin. Worse than that, he appeared to be lacking the entirety of his lower jaw, though not his tongue that hung like a cat's tail from the gaping hole of his throat. A visible streak of dirty blood, probably more dirt than blood, followed in his wake.

It was a gut-churning sight. Will was never one to turn away from a sorry case, would never disregard someone who was injured and came for help. In the zombie's case, however, he felt that he could pretty easily discern why he'd died. He did appear to be something of a lost cause. More than lost – he wasn't much of a cause at all.

Mr D started to his feet with a clatter of his cutlery. It was a testament to his distress that he actually dropped his can of Diet Coke to the table with an audible _thunk,_ the hissing spread of soda washing across his table. "Alright," he called, his voice just an octave or so higher than it perhaps should have been. "Alright, fine. Go and sit wherever you want. Just send them away. Now, if you would."

Nico paused in the act of shredding his half-a-cob loaf and blinked at the camp director innocently. "What?"

"Away. Send them away!"

Will watched with an itching grin as Nico deliberately drew his gaze around the ring of skeletons and zombies, meeting their gazes as well as he realistically could considering half of them lacked eyeballs. For a moment, Will almost expected Nico to object to the sudden leniency of the god.

But then he shrugged. He rose to his feet, picked up his plate and made his way around the camp fire towards the Apollo table. Without a word of command, the zombies and skeletons similarly rose and, turning on their heels, set about dragging themselves towards the jagged cracks riddling the pavilion floor once more and bodily falling into the gaping holes. The crawling, half-mangled body of the jaw-less zombie was the last to leave, the scaping slide of his passage slowly disappearing into the night. Will doubted he was the only one who felt the dining pavilion become distinctly lighter after their retreat.

Without a word, Nico dropped into the chair beside Will. And just as silently, Will, Kayla and Austin fell back to their dinners as though nothing unusual had happened in the slightest. It was remarkable how easy it was to swallow food when the presence of the zombie diners had disappeared. Will did notice, however, that he wasn't the only one attempting to withhold a smile.

Clearing his throat, Will strove for lightness when he spoke. "Hey, Nico."

Nico paused in his bread-shredding to glance at him sidelong. There was warning in that stare, as though he dared Will to even try to push him the wrong way. Warning and… something else. Almost wariness? Nervousness? What, did he think -?

 _Does he think we'll ask him to leave the table or something?_

"What?" Nico asked, slowly pressing a sliver of bread between his fingers as though squishing a bug. "If you're going to whinge about me sitting at your table too, I'll hit you. It's because of you that I'm here in the first place.

Will allowed his smile to spread and widen. "Because of me? How do you figure?"

"You're so pathetically desperate to sit at _my_ table, and you looked like such a pathetically kicked puppy, that I couldn't let you just wallow in your own pathetic-ness."

"That's an overuse of the word 'pathetic'," Kayla said with a suppressed smile of her own.

"And I don't think 'pathetic-ness' is a word," Austin added.

Nico glared at them and yes, his glare was still enough to make them both flinch slightly, regardless of the fact that Will knew they'd taken to him at least a little bit over the past days. Shaking his head, he stepped in to their rescue. "Actually, that wasn't what I was going to say."

Glancing sidelong at him once more, Nico went back to squeezing his pieces of bread threateningly. "Do speak your thoughts. I'm sure they're pure gold."

"Well, I'm glad you feel that way because in my opinion," with a darting sweep of half of his plate onto Nico's he effectively drowned the shredded cob loaf in stir-fried vegetables, "you don't eat enough vegetables."

Nico stared at his plate in stunned horror for a moment. They he snapped and the riot at the Apollo table arose much as it had not quite a week before. Will quickly found himself descending into laughter at the son of Hades attempted to batter him abusively for his presumption, Austin similarly dissolving into bodily shakes of merriment. Kayla appeared torn between her natural loyalty towards her half-siblings and an inclination towards destructive behaviour, one instant helping Nico to reprimand Will's behaviour and the next pelting him with cherry tomatoes from her own plate.

It set a precedent, that first night that Nico sat the entire dinner at the Apollo table. Not for food fights, to which Will would later discover saddened Kayla greatly, but for companionship. After a brief reference to Nico's "mood disorder" being the supposed cause for his behaviour, and Will's subsequent suggestion that he could "write you a note for that and make your seating arrangement medically advised", it was a done deal. If only slightly, Nico became an honorary member of their dining table. Or at least he did in the eyes of the children of Apollo, even if it was for dinner only.

In hindsight, Will had to wonder whether that was what Nico had really wanted. Maybe that was what had pushed him towards his aversion of Will? Maybe he really had come to the Apollo table because he was vaguely compassionate and thought that Will had wanted his company – which he did, but that wasn't the sole reason that Will had made his first gesture. What if Nico didn't actually want company at dinner at all?

Or maybe it was the mothering. Maybe that was. Will had very strong opinions about what was suitable to eat to maintain health, much as every other child of Apollo did. What if the fact that Will effectively took over ordering Nico's dinner every night and made sure that he ate at least half of it was too excessive? It was seemed sort of funny most of the time, regardless of how serious Will was in his sentiment but… maybe it had been too much? Was it too presumptuous?

Will didn't know. And regardless of the fact that he pursued the thought, he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know.


	4. Chapter 4 - Asking Too Much?

**Chapter 4: Asking Too Much?**

"You're on our team for Capture the Flag."

Nico down towards where Will was squatting, pausing in the act of skipping rocks across the lake. It appeared that he had something of a skill for the practice, though had only scowled at Will when he'd commented as much. He seemed to perceive the compliment as more of a criticism than the praise it was intended to be.

Will didn't mind. He'd come to expect such a response from Nico over the past months of what he liked to consider their budding friendship. Far be it from maintaining a wary distance, a distance that Nico appeared to maintain with just about everyone but a select few, they'd actually been spending an increasing amount of time together. At least… Will hoped there was a friendship growing. He was coming to like the other boy more and more, even outside of the fact that he was simply _so_ much fun to tease. Maybe even… no, he wouldn't delve into that. He wouldn't consider such an extent, at least not yet. Not when things were so new and tenuous.

Because there were certain things about Nico that Will had come to discover. Like the fact that while he appeared quiet most of the time he could actually talk and talk and talk incessantly when he felt the urge to, especially when he got onto a subject that enthused him such as the general stupidity of the Romans. Not to say that he considered the Greeks as being much better, of course, but Nico was quite persistent about the Romans. Or the fact that, while he scowled, glared or frowned most of the time, it seemed to be more of his resting face, as though he assumed such an expression even when not disgruntled and quite without intention.

He'd discovered that they shared things in common, such as an interest in games that Nico only admitted to after persistent prodding on Will's part, and that he was weirdly good at just about every game he played even if he hadn't ever played it before. Or that he got weirdly fixated on specific things – Will was still trying to decide whether or not it was a good thing that he'd effectively forced him to read the Harry Potter series, claiming it was "a classic that every well-respected teenager and demigod should have read". He'd effectively lost Nico into the series for a couple of days after that; Nico even brought the books to the dinner table and glared at anyone who attempted to interrupt his reading.

Or that he was good at skipping rocks.

"What are you talking about?" Nico asked, slowly lowering his upraised hand and dancing the pebble he held between his fingers.

"Capture the Flag," Will reiterated casually. _Always keep it casual. Anything pushy or intense and Nico raises his hackles_. That much Will had too deduced. Nico needed a gentle suggestion and then time to consider his options before replying to an unnerving situation. "I figured that you could join the Apollo team for Harley's latest set up. It sounds pretty intense, as usual. We could probably use all the help we could get."

 _Keep it casual, keep it nonchalant. Make it sound as though he's doing me a favour but that I wouldn't really care either way._ For that was another thing Will had noticed. Nico didn't seem particularly inclined to admitting the he liked doing anything. It was more likely to attain his participation if he felt like he obliged to do it for selfless reasons, despite the fact that Will had come to realise that no one could force Nico to do _anything_ he didn't want to do. He always got his way eventually, either through sheer stubborn persistence – as with the Zombie Diners, as they had come to be called – or by simply ignoring the words and suggestions of others.

"You want _me_ to join your team?"

"I think that's what I just asked."

" _Me_?"

" _You_."

Nico shook his head, turning his eyes down to the pebble in his hand. He flipped it idly between his palms. "You're weird."

Will raised an eyebrow. "Why's that?"

"Because most people try to stay as far away from me as possible. They're worried I'll snap, flip a switch and summon the legions of the dead or vanquish them to the Fields of Punishment or something."

"Can you do that?" Will asked curiously.

"Of course not. Don't be stupid. It's just what people think."

"Not everyone, though."

Nico nodded slowly, frowning slightly as though baffled by the notion. "Yeah, not everyone. And not you. Why is that, exactly?"

Will was silent for a moment. What could he say? That he had actually come to enjoy Nico's company as strange and different as it was to what he was more prone to pursuing? That he liked spending time with him as much if not more than he did with the two of his siblings that were still at camp? That he actually really, _really_ liked him for some reason that he couldn't pinpoint exactly from the range of possible explanations? No, that would be too much. Besides, Will sincerely doubted that Nico would respond positively to such admissions, any more than he did to the references about him that every other person in camp made.

Rising from his squat, Will strolled to Nico's side. He made a snatch for the pebble bouncing in Nico's palm, which Nico easily dodged once, twice, thrice, before he spun and launched it in a series of splashing skips across the top of the lake.

Watching the ripples fade, Will casually dropped an elbow onto Nico's shoulder. Which, naturally, was shrugged off. _Classically predictable. So fun to tease._ "Well, personally I think I'd rather have you on my team than against it."

"I don't play on either team."

"You _haven't_ played on either team," Will corrected. "Not yet."

"You know I don't train with any of the other campers," Nico said, peering up at Will and speaking slowly as though to a particularly dense child.

"I have noticed," Will replied with similar slowness. "Which is kind of stupid. You should train more. What happens if you find yourself up against a monster and you haven't trained in ages?"

"I can defend myself."

Will nodded. He knew that. He'd seen Nico in action at the battle against the Romans but two months before. He was a demon with his Stygian sword. But that had been three months ago. "Yeah, but it's sometimes good to practice with others, you know? Just to simulate a real life situation and all that."

"You're sounding like a Roman," Nico muttered, the rising of his eyebrows telling Will exactly what he thought of the similarity. "They're always about 'practice and prepare to get yourself killed' and all that."

"Wonderful. These guys sound like a charm."

"Tell me about it. You didn't have to live with them."

"Neither did you," Will pointed out. "So why did you?"

Nico's lips pursed in what Will had come to recognise as being his descent into a state of stubbornly closed lips. "None of your business."

"And if I wanted to ask anyway? Because you're my friend and I want to know?"

Nico sighed and rolled his eyes up towards Will. "I'd say you're an idiot and to mind your own business."

 _Well, at least he doesn't object to me openly calling him my friend._ That reality did quite a bit to dampen Will's disgruntlement on the issue. "Regardless of that – of all of that – you should still probably train."

"I do train."

"When? I've never seen you. In fact, you always say that you make a point of avoiding the practice yards and the archery range. I can't actually imagine you practicing scaling up the climbing wall."

"Oh, because you're so graceful at it yourself?"

"Have you seen me?" Will asked. Nico rolled his eyes once more. "Exactly. I admit that I'm not the best at it, but I'm competent enough. Make the intermediate climb in under three minutes."

"Congratulations," Nico said sarcastically.

"Thank you. Your recognition is noted." Will smiled, his grin widening as Nico, naturally, replied with a frown. "I'm better with my feet on the ground and a bow in my hand."

"I thought you said you suck at archery."

"I don't 'suck' at archery. I'm just not as good as some of the other kids of Apollo."

"I get the impression you're short-changing yourself," Nico murmured. "The worst child of Apollo is the best of every other demigod."

Will stared. And blinked. Then stared some more. Was that… just a compliment? Right on the tail end of a opposing criticism? Will wasn't entirely sure, even as he felt his chest warm as he unconsciously accepted it as such. He propped his arm on Nico's shoulder once more and steadfastly refused being shrugged off this time. "Maybe you could actually see it for yourself if you took part in Capture the Flag this round. Seriously, we'll need all the help we can get with one of Harley's layouts. And regardless of what you think, you do actually need the practice."

"I do practice," Nico persisted.

"Where? When? I've never seen you."

"If you must know, at night time and away from pretty much everyone."

Will stared for a moment in surprise. "You practice at night?"

"Pretty sure that's what I just said."

"How can you even see at night?"

Nico glanced up at him with an " _are you stupid_?" expression. "Will, my Dad is the Lord of the Underworld, darkness and shadows. I can bloody-well see in the dark, that's how."

"You can see in the dark?"

"If you start repeating me, we're not going to get anywhere with this conversation."

Will slowly shook his head. _Well, I'll be. Never knew that either._ "Well, aside from that, it's good to have people to practice against –"

"I do practice against other people." Nico bent down and picked up another pebble, tossing it in his palm for a moment before lobbing it across the lake. Only four skips this time. Will wondered if he was distracted as he replaced his arm upon Nico's shoulder.

"With who?" Will pressed.

"Why do you even care?"

"I'm curious. Obviously."

Nico regarded him with a hooded expression for a moment before sighing in resignation. "If you must know, I raise some dead soldiers and they fight me."

"You… you raise the dead to help you practice fighting with a sword?"

"There you go, you can listen. But you're repeating me again. Stop it."

Will shook his head, discarding the sarcasm for more important consideration. "Well, that's something you don't hear every day." He paused, considering. "Can I come sometime?"

Nico paused in the act of bending for another pebble and turned towards Will. His expression became wary, guarded and slightly accusing. "Why?"

"If you start repeating yourself, we're not going to get anywhere with this conversation," Will parroted with a smirk, tweaking Nico's words just slightly. "I already told you why. I'm curious."

"You're weird is what you are," Nico muttered, shaking his head.

"I'm the weird one?"

"Obviously."

The stood in silence for a moment, Nico snatching up another handful of pebbles and sorting through them for the flattest ones. It was a testament to the depth of his thoughts that he only tried to shrug Will's elbow off his shoulder once. _That's another point to Will Solace_.

Finally, Nico broke the silence. "I'll think about it." Then he fell silent once more, frowning at his pebbles.

"About which one?" Will prompted. Frankly, Will would be happy to have either of his suggestions accepted, participation in Capture the Flag or allowing him to tag along to his nocturnal combat sessions. It would be interesting, if more than a little creepy, to practice at night with Nico on occasion. Although, Will had never been overly fond of the darkness, what with being the son of Apollo and all that.

"About Capture the Flag. I'll… I'll think about it."

Will bit back on the words that threatened to spill forth, that he'd probably have to think pretty quickly seeing as the game was that afternoon. Instead, he smiled. It was progress, if nothing else. "Cool. Just, I don't know, let me know when you've decided either way." Then, with a darting snatch, he scooped up a flat, grey pebble from Nico's hands and sent it skipping across the lake. Ten skips. That was a new record for Will. Nico might be good, but Will liked to think he was at least his match.

"That was the best pebble of the lot," Nico grumbled, scowling at the ripples that slowly dissipated from the surface of the lake.

"Of course it was," Will replied with a grin down at Nico's upturned, frowning face. "I always pick the best."

* * *

"No way. You were actually right."

Will turned at Kayla's whispered words and felt a smile peel across his face. Their modest group of demigods was gathered before the eastern forest and huddling in wary wait for the signal to "Go!" that Harley would announce for the beginning of the game. They were divided into two, roughly equal teams, exchanging taunts already in the usual bantering attempts at intimidation. Will had been mouthing tauntingly at Cecil across the distance between them for the last five minutes at least.

Nico slipped silently across the green towards them, rugged up as he always was in his typical uniform of black, heavy boots and bomber jacket. His Stygian sword was strapped across his back, the pommel sticking up just visibly above his left shoulder. He kept his eyes downturned, hands stuffed in his pockets as though he were doing nothing but going for a leisurely stroll and just happened to be bypassing the congregation of fellow demigods.

He slowed to a stop beside Will and finally raised his gaze. Not to Will – no, Will got the impression he was deliberately not meeting his eyes – but towards the rest of the team. "What?"

"What… are you…?" Miranda Gardiner, daughter of Demeter, scratched quizzically at the side of her head before tugging at a dark curl in evident confusion. "I mean… what…?"

With exaggerated cheer, Will stepped up to Nico's side and slung an arm around his shoulders in a half-embrace that, regardless of his squirming, he didn't let Nico wriggle out of. "Nico's going to be on our team today."

"Please get off me," Nico grumbled. There was long-suffering resignation in his tone that could almost match the pitch of a child of Apollo to a T.

Will grinned at Nico in what he could only assume must have appeared a denial, for Nico only glared back at him. There wasn't a huge discrepancy between them in their heights, nothing but a couple of inches, but Will knew that he had a killer grip when he wanted and Nico didn't have a chance of escaping his hold. All that practice pinning down struggling patients. He'd break Nico of his disgruntlement with casual, friendly touches one day. Persistence always persevered.

"Isn't that a little…?" Marcus Lippe from Athena's cabin frowned, quirking his lips and twisting his face so that the scar that ran down from his hairline to his cheek pulled starkly white. "I mean, no offence or anything Nico, but isn't that a little…?"

Will didn't like what Marcus was insinuating with his incomplete questions but before he could reply Austin jumped in. "An unfair advantage you mean?"

Marcus flashed him a glance. "Well, that's not exactly –"

"Personally," Kayla overrode him, "I'd gladly take you on our team, Nico. Conjure up as many of your walking dead that you want; it's fine by me. As long as they're on our side and help us win, of course."

"Of course," Nico muttered, and Will couldn't tell for a moment whether he was being sarcastic or genuinely agreeing. He concluded the latter, more out of hope than actual belief.

Before anyone else could speak another word, Harley bounded into the clearing, as usual accompanied by his elder sister who would wait on the sidelines of the game as it would "even the numbers". Which was a load of bull, Will thought, considering that when Nico hadn't been present the teams had been uneven. He suspected she likely knew the potential dangers that Harley had installed for them and didn't want to risk losing a limb. Chiron clopped up behind them.

"Right, now we want a nice, clean game," he intoned formally, drawing his gaze across both teams. Will was gratified that he didn't pause or even bat an eyelid at Nico's presence, despite it being largely absent in most every other situation. "Mortal wounds are excluded, and blunt strikes to the neck or spinal region are discouraged, if you would."

 _Always reassuring,_ Will thought. His mind was already speculating as to the potential injuries he'd have to patch up at the end of the game.

"Harley," Chiron continued. "Do you have any additional words?"

Bouncing on his toes, Harely grinned at the demigods before him. Will didn't think it was just his imagination that he seemed slightly manic. The son of Hephaestus shook his head. "Nope. Same as usual. First to get the other team's flag wins. Extra points if you manage to knock out all of your opponents."

"I don't think –" Chiron began.

"Extra points? So this is a points based game, is it?" Holly Victor, daughter of Nike, interrupted Chiron with her usual demanding loudness.

"Because if it is, how are we scoring." Her sister Laurel hastened to add. "What, like, ten points for a head shot, five to the chest and seven to the legs or something?"

"Why are you even bothering to ask? You know I'm going to win anyway."

"Not if it's localised. You suck at head shots."

"Yeah, but at least I have a higher strike rate than you over all."

"Doesn't matter, I'd still win."

"In your dreams."

"In your nightmares, you mean."

"Anyway!" Chiron finally interrupted. He shook his head slightly as though ridding it of the two girls' growling banter. "Shall we?" He glanced towards Harley. "Whenever you're ready."

From nowhere, Harley drew what looked like nothing if not an exceptionally cumbersome handgun and held it aloft. "On my mark," he shouted with unnecessary enthusiasm. Then, without a pause, yelled "GO!" and fired the gun into the air.

The blasting snap of the gun – a variation of a flare gun from the looks of the vibrant orange firework exploding across the sky – snapped every demigod to attention. Will felt the adrenaline that had been steadily building within him all day crescendo and peak, and before he was even aware of what he was doing he found himself leaping towards the tree line. He didn't remember letting go of Nico's shoulders, nor seeing in which direction the other boy had run, before he fell into the forest.

Will's team had a strategy of sorts. A strategy that consisted of little more than "defend our flag while stealing the enemy's flag". They'd rely on stealth, however, something that children of Apollo were more adept at, and diversion, which the children of Hecate possessed in droves. The Athena and Hecate and odd single cabin members would guard their territory while the rest – Apollo's kids, Miranda and her little sister and Nico – would go for the attack.

It should work. Realistically, it should, what with who compiled the party of defensive forces. Even accounting for the mines and pitfalls that Harley had planted throughout the forested region.

Will would have lost his right leg barely five minutes in had not some sixth sense alerted him to the slight shift in the soil beneath his foot. He dove for cover. An explosion moments later rained dirt and twigs down upon him as he wrapped his arms over his head for the added protection.

Only minutes later, back on his feet and running once more, and Will nearly bowled over a trip wire that would have sliced his feet off at the ankles had he not managed to dance over it. Sheer luck saved him that time, luck and a potentially dangerously fired arrow that had missed him by a hair's breadth and dropped him to the ground once more. He lifted his gaze only to see the spider web-thin trip line stretched across his path barely a foot away. Will snapped it with his belt knife as he passed; friend or temporary foe, he didn't fancy attempting to reattach severed feet that afternoon.

Explosions and diversion, potholes and cavernous pits, illusions cast only the Gods knew how – Will bypassed them all. He knew only the vague direction he needed to travel into the enemy's territory, his internal compass pointing him north to the south of his own, and followed that bearing unerringly. On only one instance did he have to use his bow, when he came across what could only be described as a mechanical and savage version of a nymph with gnashing bronze teeth and ridiculously long claws. It fell with an arrow though its forehead easily enough.

At least, no one until he stumbled upon the enemy.

Children of Ares took combat practice far too seriously, Will had always thought. Sherman Yang seemed to consider Capture the Flag to be an issue of life and death, nothing if not a rescue mission that simply _had_ to be won. Will enjoyed the games, enjoyed the thrill that pumped racing blood through his veins at a hundred miles an hour and the exhilaration and pride that came with _winning – triumph – teamwork_ , but he would never be that obsessive. He doubted he would ever possessive the savage and murderous gleam to his eyes that Sherman did when he charged him, or his brother Ellis when he launched himself from the opposite direction.

Will had a moment to think _Oh, shit_ before he was ducking and diving, rolling and spinning to his feet to avoid the swing of Sherman's heavy claymore, of Ellis' equally heavy axe. The thump of weapons striking the ground with deep gashes where he'd stood a split second before wasn't altogether reassuring.

"Hey, watch it!" He cried, leaping to his feet only to dodge backwards in avoidance of another swipe of Sherman's sword.

" _You_ watch it, Solace," Sherman replied with a curling grin. "Think you're all that? Don't even _think_ you'll be able to get your hands on what's ours."

"We'll grind you to a pulp," Ellis agreed, as usual falling into backing Sherman's words with casual fluidity.

"Charming," Will replied. Then, with all the ferocity and determination of a demigod warrior, he turned tail and fled further into enemy territory.

Sherman's and Ellis' cries of "coward!" and "get back here" chased after him just as their footsteps did. Will ignored them. An archer's place wasn't to engage in hand to hand combat so much it was in choosing an opportune time and place to strike from afar. Wedged between a savage swordsman and an axe-wielding maniac was not such a place.

He dodged through trees, springing with his natural bounding lopes over fallen branches and jutting rocks. Sherman and Ellis pounded after him, but Will knew he was faster than them. He probably would have escaped them, too, if not for the landmine that blew up in his face. Harley had obviously been a little bit trigger-happy with the explosions this time around.

Will flew backwards with the shockwave and only just managed to twist to minimise the damage of his landing. It still hurt when he crashed to the ground on his shoulder. Rolling to his feat, gritting his teeth against the painful twinge, he hefted his bow. He may as well use the opportunity that presented itself.

Unfortunately for him, Sherman and Ellis were closer than he'd anticipated. One arrow, two targets, and not in the neck? Gods, set a challenge next time why don't you, Chiron?

Two things happened at once. Will loosed his arrow, firing at Sherman and striking him in the shoulder – the distance was minimal enough between them that the force of the hit knocked him from his feet. And at the same time, Ellis tripped.

No, he didn't trip. He _was_ tripped. By a corpse half crawled from a sudden crack in the ground who, in a state of semi-animation, had swung a decaying hand forwards and made a grab for his ankle. Ellis crashed to the ground in a tumbling roll, head over heels and bellowing in surprise. It was as his back slammed to the ground that Nico appeared.

He was like a shadow himself, sweeping from the cover of trees and leaping at Ellis' rising form like an avenging angel. Sword flashing, spinning in a windmilling arc, he struck at Ellis' gauntleted hands, at the handle of his axe, knocked the side of his head then kicked him in the chest to drop him once more. Ellis had barely struck the ground when Nico turned and practically flew towards the recovering Sherman, black sword spinning almost too fast to see. Will had barely managed to notch another arrow – and not because he was _slow_ at notching – before the second Ares boy toppled to the ground alongside his brother.

Nico turned and glanced towards Will, barely even breathing heavily. He spared a moment to sweep a disregarding hand at the zombie that had tripped Ellis, who subsided with a sinking into the earth as though it was quicksand, before affixing Will with his full attention once more. "Do you have a death wish?"

Lowering his bow, Will shook his head. "If I did, I'd just ask you, wouldn't I? Don't have to bother the Ares kids for that."

Nico snorted, rolling his eyes. Then he regarded Will with a raised eyebrow. "Why are you smiling?"

"I'm smiling?"

"The fact that you are and don't realise it is kind of creepy."

"Says the Goth Boy who raises skeletons from the ground."

"Don't call me 'Goth Boy'."

"You love it."

"No, I really, really don't."

Chuckling to himself, Will clambered to his feet. "Alright then, Zombie Lord. Lets get on with it. We've got a flag to capture." And he set off at a run. Surely they couldn't be far off now.

It took a minute of walking and the dodging of a swarm of automaton wasps before Will realised it. "You didn't object to Zombie Lord?"

Nico frowned, and Will suspected he hadn't even realised his own lack of objection. He rubbed the side of his nose it what could only be a display of awkward embarrassment from his otherwise closed expression. "It's better than Goth Boy, I suppose."

"Really?"

"Don't get any ideas," Nico hastened to add, holding up a pointed finger. "That doesn't mean I want you to call me that. And if you do, I'll slap you with my sword. I just meant that it sounds slightly less teenage angst-y and derogatory."

Will nodded, struggling to withhold a grin. "Agreed. Besides, 'Lord' definitely has more regal connotations."

"Don't make fun of me."

"I'm not."

"Bullshit. Just don't."

Will laughed.

They stumbled upon the flag moments later. Through a sea of children of Aphrodite, Hermes and the lone Hypnos representative, true, but that was easy enough. Especially when Miranda arrived seconds after Will knocked the dopey Diego to the ground with a blunted arrow after knocking Cecil out with a grin, and Nico swept the feet out from beneath Felicity McGrath. In short order, they'd snatched the blue flag from the ground, strapped it onto Will's back and set off back towards their own territory. Victory was all but assured when Kayla and Austin burst from the trees behind them moments later, bows raised.

"You know," Will called conversationally to Nico as they ran, weaving through the trees. "You really are quite good with your sword."

"Gee, thanks," Nico replied flatly, disappearing for a moment behind a tree.

"No, seriously. I mean, I wouldn't mind coming with you to one of your midnight training sessions."

"They're not at midnight."

"What?"

"I said _they're not at midnight_ ," Nico reiterated with excessive volume.

"Then when are they?"

"Witching hour, of course," Nico replied, as though such should be obvious. "It's the easiest time to raise the dead."

"Of course." Will jumped over a rock and batted a rogue pigeon automaton from his path with his bow. "Why didn't I think of that?" Silence for a moment, then. "Can I?"

"Can you what?"

"Can I come?"

"Gods you're insistent, aren't you?"

"Well, what can I say?"

"Nothing. You can say nothing - "

"You –"

"- because you already talk too much."

Kayla's laughter sounded from behind him at that, reminding Will that they had an audience. Not that it really mattered, nor that he cared. He was quite enjoying himself, bantering with Nico on the waves of triumph of capturing the opposing teams flag. It didn't matter whether anyone heard them or not. "Well, it's a bit of a hike back to our flag. We've got to have something to do. So?"

Somehow, Nico managed to sigh long-sufferingly sigh in between the panting breaths. "You really won't shut up, will you?"

"No," Will admitted with a panting laugh. "Not until we get back to base."

He should have expected it, Will reflected later. He basically set himself up for the situation himself. With a barely audible "in that case", Nico sidestepped towards him, wrapped a thin-fingered hand around his wrist and tugged him towards the ground.

No, not towards the ground. Towards the shadow.

Shadow travelling was one of the most horrifying yet exhilarating experiences that Will had ever experienced. The cold, the dark, the confusion, the squeezing, pulling, stretching feeling. It all lasted only a moment before he resurfaced into light and promptly fell on his arse the second his feet touched the ground. The world spun around him for a moment, dizzyingly and over-bright. Will blinked in spams, attempting to regain control of his senses, hands the only thing holding him upright from falling on his back. He peer up at the figures before him.

Nico stood above him, arms folded and the smugness of his expression swimming into view as the dizziness faded. Along either side of him were the children of Athena and Hecate, Lou Ellen stepping forwards. Will fought the roiling urge to spill the contents of his stomach onto her feet for the sole reason that he didn't think he would be able to face Nico again if he did. Nico, who did that _all the time_.

"That was…" What? Incredible? Terrifying? Horrifyingly nauseating? "Unnecessary." Will managed to force a reprimanding frown into his face as he clambered to his feet. And no, his legs did _not_ wobble. Not in the slightest. "What have a told you about shadow travelling, Goth Boy? Seriously. Even I know you pass out after doing it too much and I've only seen you do it, what, once?"

Nico, who did indeed appear a shade paler for his efforts, frowned. "I'm not going to pass out. That was hardly even a jump. You're not exactly a heavy weight, Will."

"Well, thanks."

"And what have I told you about calling me 'Goth Boy'?"

"About the same thing I tell you about shadow travelling, I'd say." Will replied. There was a pause, the both of them said in perfect synchrony, "Don't."

Will couldn't help but grin, despite his lingering nausea and even as he knew he was supposed to be scolding Nico's foolishness and the stupidity of his actions because Will didn't _want_ Nico to exert himself like that. But it was too perfect a moment, and made even better by the fact that Nico actually smiled. Well, for a split second before he appeared to regain frowning control of his facial features.

Sniffing, ignoring the Aphrodite and Hecate children alongside him, Nico sheathed his sword over his shoulder and stuffed his hands into his pockets. With a one-shouldered shrug he stepped past Will. "Well, we won."

"We did," Will agreed watching his retreat for a moment before, flashing a glance towards a smirking Lou Ellen and a thoughtful Malcolm Pace, he hastened to fall into step beside him. "See, you are good at combat games."

"Don't belittle me," Nico muttered without even sparing Will a sidelong glance as he wove towards the edge of the forest.

"I'm not belittling you. I really mean it. And I actually would like to come to one of your midnight training sessions for once."

"I told you," Nico sighed. "It's not at midnight."

"Witching hour, then. Nocturnal practice. Whatever."

Nico was silent for a moment, though as Will watched him sidelong, striving to appear as though he wasn't, he didn't appear aversive to the notion. Faintly frowning, but not aversive. And then, finally, "Yeah, whatever."

Will blinked, slightly stunned. "Really?"

"Why do you sound so shocked? You asked me; surely you would have anticipated me to say yes _maybe_."

"I did," Will admitted. "Maybe."

"Well, then. Whatever. Just," Nico held up a pointed finger towards him once more, "I'm not dragging you from bed. If you want to come, you get your own arse into gear."

"Yes, sir, my Lord of Darkness."

"Don't call me that. People call my _Hades_ that. I don't want to be called that."

"Yes, sir, my Zombie King." Will reattempted, saluting him with the blue flag that he swung over his shoulder from his back.

Nico snorted, but Will could make out a very definite smile upon his this time, regardless of how he tried to tuck his chin to hide it. And Will felt that warmth flood he'd felt that morning well within him once more, rich and thick and shivering in delight. That warmth stayed with Will throughout the rest of afternoon as they presented their flag triumphantly to Harley who could only express his disappointment that they'd apparently returned so unscathed. It endured when Will set about to applying bandages and handing out ambrosia to the unlikely few who hadn't managed to avoid the automatons and pitfalls, the landmines and the trip wires. Poor Paolo Montes had nearly sliced off an entire foot with one of the wickedly sharp weapons. And even after dinner, when Nico took himself off to the Hades cabin with barely a raised hand of farewell, Will could still see his smile long since hidden and still feel its effects.

Will had thought it had been a smile. He had hoped it was, a welcoming smile, an amused smile, a coddling, or exasperated, or long-suffering smile. Thinking back on it, he wasn't so sure. Had he been wrong? Had he merely been making hopeful assumptions? What if he had been too pestering, too demanding, asked for too much, and Nico had simply caved because he'd wanted him to stop with his persistence. He had said that Will spoke too much. Was he being serious, rather than playfully teasing as Will had assumed?

He wasn't sure. Will wasn't sure at all anymore. And in hindsight, he sorely wished he'd bitten his tongue.


	5. Chapter 5 - Or A Bad First Impression?

**Chapter 5: Or A Bad First Impression?**

~ ** _November_** ~

"I'm not blaming you, I'm just – alright, I'm blaming you. You're ruining it."

Will propped his hands on his hips as he paused in step outside of the train station and turned towards Nico. The crowds parted around them like a school of fish around a boulder, businessmen in suits, women in pantsuits or pin skirts and heels, carrying briefcases and exclaiming unnecessarily loudly into their cell phones. "How am I ruining it?"

Nico hunched his shoulder slightly, sinking into his scarf. He'd resolutely refused the beanie that Will had offered him, claiming that he "wouldn't be caught dead in anything with a bobble on it" and now was suffering the consequences. Not that Nico would ever admit the error of his ways. He'd turn into a popsicle before he'd admit it, even if that day in particular wasn't likely to induce such a freezing response. It was only November, after all. A little crisp but hardly chilling.

Will didn't mind. It gave him an excuse to wrap an arm around Nico's shoulders that, whether it was for the added warmth or the fact that he just couldn't be bothered anymore, Nico didn't try to shrug off. Or at least not after the first two tries.

"Because," Nico replied rolling his eyes. "You glow."

"Not on purpose."

"I know it's not on purpose, but you're ruining my night vision. How exactly am I supposed to practice in the dark with my own personal sun standing right next to me?"

Will grinned. For a number of reasons, really, but primarily because of Nico's off-handed comment. His own personal sun? Well, Nico probably didn't put as much weight behind his words as Will hoped he did, but even knowing that couldn't dampen the flooding warmth that did indeed feel very much like the radiance of the sun spreading through his chest. It was the same warmth that had been infecting him almost every day for a month now, and Will would have to be truly stupid not to deduce its causality. "If it counts for anything, I didn't know that I could glow in the dark. Obviously."

"I know," Nico nodded. "Otherwise you wouldn't have nearly impaled yourself that first night."

"I didn't nearly impale myself."

"Only because I caught you when you tripped over that zombie."

"True enough," Will nodded obligingly. He could admit fault where it was due, especially when, for one of several instances that were becoming more and more frequent of late, Nico didn't speak with sarcasm. Or at least not with all that much. "I guess it's lucky that I can glow now, then. For me, at least."

"Yeah, for _you_ ," Nico emphasised. "For me it's really annoying. Did you know that sons of Apollo could do that?"

"Nope. Never heard of it before."

"Gods, you're just a little ray of sunshine, aren't you, Solace?"

Will grinned again. That delicious warmth pouring through his chest returned with a tidal upwelling. "Don't you forget it."

Shaking his head, Nico turned and began walking with the crowd once more. Philadelphia Metropolitan at midmorning was alive with activity, pedestrians and tooting cars, blaring buses and the occasional wailing sirens of some emergency vehicle soaring past. Will fell into step beside him, disregarding their conversation for a later time. It was inconclusive, and with the apparent disgruntlement of Nico's words – granted, not quite as visibly disgruntled as he had shown he could be – Will thought it best to let sleeping dogs lie. He'd actually learned quite a lot from his nocturnal practice sessions with Nico. He'd hate to be excluded because for some unknown and uncontrollable reason he had developed the ability to glow in the dark. Only sometimes, of course, because what unexpected and largely unwanted skill wasn't unpredictable like that?

They made their way through the streets, Nico pretending to lead while every now and again Will directed him with a touch to the shoulder and a gesture. Congested streets gave way to sparsely populated roads that became more quietly residential. High-rise shrunk to apartment buildings, which gave way to less expansive, modestly grandiose housing, and within the hour Will was back-seat leading Nico down a familiar street.

Nico paused in step at the head of Opal Avenue and stared. Will stopped beside him, taking in the parallel rows of elegant brick terraces outfitted with immaculate lawns, iron-wrought fences of twisted patterns and sleek, expensive cars dotting the curb. From hooded windows peered images of gossamer curtains and pale interiors, gold-white light and, occasionally, the murmur of voices indoors.

It had been a while since Will had been home. He'd missed the simple things.

"Will."

The monotone of Nico's voice drew Will's attention from his nostalgia. Glancing sidelong, he cocked his head questioningly at the expression presented to him. "What?"

Nico stared at him blankly, unreadable for a moment. He wasn't glaring, he wasn't scowling and, unfortunately, he wasn't smiling either. After a long pause, he slowly shook his head. "You're a spoilt little rich kid, aren't you?"

Will was so surprised that he gave a bark of laughter before containing himself. "What?"

"You are. You seriously are." Nico made a gesture down the road, encompassing the extravagance that Will had always acknowledged and simply accepted. "How exactly?"

"What do you mean?" Will felt a flush of awkwardness rise in his cheeks and shifted from foot to foot. He didn't like talking about his small family's wealth. He never had. It had always simply ostracised him in the past, even when he'd briefly attended upper class primary schools where everyone was wealthy. People just seemed to react like that to explanation about his mum. He was proud of her, but sometimes he wished she wasn't quite as much the genius that she was. "My mum's a surgeon. I told you that."

"A surgeon," Nico parroted blandly, his voice still that flat monotone. "Your mum's a surgeon."

Will scrubbed at the back of his head. He'd hoped to avoid the conversation though rightly should have predicted it given that he had been the one to suggest they take a day trip to his mum's house. He should have anticipated that anyone with two brain cells to rub together would have been able to tell from a glance that Opal Avenue was flooded with those that basically breathed dollar bills.

"Mum's a neurosurgeon," Will admitted reluctantly. He peered awkwardly at Nico, hand still knuckling the back of his head. Nico remained blank faced and, for some reason, his lack of response actually made it easier to continue. "And when I say neurosurgeon, I really mean _the_ neurosurgeon. She's sort of like… known for it."

"Like internationally renowned?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"And that makes her ridiculously rich?"

"Well, yeah, I guess," Will mumbled, hand still scrubbing awkwardly at the back of his head once more. "Besides, she's a saver. She didn't come from a wealthy family herself or anything so… minimalistic spender and all that, you know?"

Nico stared at him for a moment. Then he drew his gaze back along the length of the street. Then back to Will again. Finally, his face slipped from its blank mask and he rolled his eyes. "That's just… _Incredibile. Ma naturalmente si è._ "

Will's embarrassment faded into a grin at Nico's words. If he was embarrassed, then at least he was assured that Nico was astounded. When he broke into Italian like that – Will didn't know what he meant when he spoke, but had made an vow to himself to learn some of the dialect – it meant he was shocked. Or something along those lines. Will didn't think he even knew he slipped into a different tongue most of the time. It had certainly taken Will long enough to discern that the unintelligible mumbles were actually unintelligible because they were quite literally a different language.

He quite liked shocking Nico. It went miles to making him feel less awkward in his own situation.

Slinging an arm around Nico's shoulders and briefly struggling with their usual tug-of-war battle to maintain the easy contact, Will urged them both back along the street. Nico muttered beneath his breath and shook his head the entire way.

Number twenty-two was a terrace quite like those stretching along either side of it. Mottled brick with ebony window frames patterned with crosses and shrouded by curtains, it hosted a simplistic garden bed of bright yellow and orange flowers that blossomed despite the near-winter season. A cobbled pathway snaked from the short flight of steps to the front door, and Will drew Nico through the gate and strolled down the hopscotch of familiar steps.

"Remind me why I have to come with you at all?" Nico asked, drawing to a stop beside Will at the front door as he dug into his pocket for his keys.

"You make it sound like I forced you to come along."

"Well, there's a reason for that."

Will smirked over his shoulder. He wasn't fooled by Nico's words. The two of them spent much their time together nowadays, as much simply working or sitting side by side as anything. If Will spent the morning in the infirmary fixing up odds and ends then Nico would usually take up residence on one of the beds and meet his chatter word for word. If Nico felt the desire to wander down to the lake or take a turn through the forest – just to take a leisurely, isolated stroll, as Will had discovered he randomly desired to do sometimes – then Will would usually come along with him.

So when Will had mentioned the day before that he was taking a quick trip down to Philly to pick up some winter clothes, books and – naturally, because he and Nico had been growing more and more fond of doing so – games, Nico hadn't said a word but had joined him as he left that morning. Regardless of the fact that he claimed he "had to come", Will had hardly asked him expressly. He didn't need to.

Without even attempting to justify Nico's accompaniment, he jiggled his keys into the lock and stepped inside. A gust of warm air met him and he beckoned Nico after him.

"I'd offer you a drink or something, but –"

"You don't have anything except health drinks and organic smoothies from the tap rather than simple water that us plebians usually partake of?"

Will sighed, turning his gaze towards the ceiling in exasperation. He couldn't keep the smile from spreading across his face, however. Far from the embarrassment or hurt that he'd felt far too often in the distant past when children had teased him for similar reasons, when Nico did it his frustration was only urged towards bubbles of amusement. The words, they hardly meant anything coming from Nico. They were teasing, yes, but simply because Nico liked to mutter with underhanded banter as a simple means of communication. Will was gradually developing the ability to discern when Nico speared those around him with insults and criticisms as opposed to merely commenting with the observational bluntness that he seemed to so frequently assume. More often than not it was the latter, and Will had discovered that, blunt and tactless though he often was, he hardly meant his words to be actually offensive.

"I do think we might have some chilled water from the fridge," he said, starting down the narrow hallway and flicking the lights on as he passed. Pictures of himself and his mother decorated the walls, framing the orchid-vase seating upon a half-moon table lining one side.

"Of course it would be 'chilled'," Nico muttered, shaking his head and following Will down the hall. "Hope you have ice cubes, Will. I'd expect nothing less."

"Oi, know your place, pleb."

"Pleb? Are you belittling me?"

"Didn't you just call yourself a plebeian two seconds ago?"

"Yeah, but it's different referring to yourself like that. I don't need to hear that kind of shit from you."

"Double standards! See, that's exactly why –"

"Will? Will, is that you?"

Will froze in step before the doorway into the living room. He barely glanced within, at the sparsely furnished sitting area of white carpets and leather couches, at the enormous television that Will both loved and ridiculed for its size. A second later he stepped forwards towards the doorway at the end of the hall and poked his head into the dining room-kitchen. "Mum?"

Naomi Solace rounded the kitchen island with a beaming smile. She looked on the flipside of a shift, still dressed in trousers and blouse with the very distinct air of 'professional' hanging around her. Except that she wore a pair of fluffy blue slippers upon her feet and held a mug of steaming coffee in a 'Keep Calm, I'm the Doctor' mug. Her blonde hair pulled back into a bun had not a hair tugged loose, and her grey eyes shone with welcome, the slight crows feet at the corners barely noticeable with the brightness of her smile.

Will blinked in surprise as she stepped forwards and pressed a kiss upon his cheek. "What are you doing here?"

Naomi took a step backwards, raising an admonishing eyebrow. "I'd think that would be obvious, seeing as it _is_ our house."

"No, I mean, shouldn't you be at work?"

His mother shrugged leaning back against the island and wrapping both hands around her mug. "I gave myself an early mark."

"You can do that?"

"Will, I'm allowed to do anything I want so long as my patients aren't compromised. You know that."

Will nodded. He did know that. Naomi was a wanted woman; she could very well pick and choose where and when she worked simply because she was that good. Not that she abused that power, but know it she did.

"But what about you?" Naomi asked, cutting into his thoughts. "I didn't expect you here, lovely surprise though it is. I feel like I hardly see anything of you these days."

Shifting sheepishly from foot to foot, Will shook his head. "Sorry, Mum. You know why I have to do that." They'd had an experience with monsters at the Japanese restaurant they'd dined at the previous Christmas that Will knew was far too prominent in both of their minds to forget as being one of the main reasons.

"I know. But it doesn't mean I don't miss you. Letters are never quite enough, right?"

"Right," Will agreed. "I'm happy to see you, though, obviously. Even if it is by accident. I just came to grab some stuff to take back to camp."

Naomi nodded. "Loading yourself up with warmer clothes, I hope. I got you a new jacket last week when I was shopping at _Barney's_ – I put it on your bed – and I moved your suitcase in the spare room if you wanted to use that."

"I don't know if I'd bother with a whole suitcase."

"Well, just in case. You've only got two hands yourself; you can hardly carry everything if you're packing a whole winter wardrobe."

For whatever reason – Will really didn't know why, as he doubted that no matter how he struggled with luggage Nico would very likely ignore him unless for some reason he felt inclined to offer help assistance – his mother's words reminded him of his friend's presence. Glancing over his shoulder, he had to pause for a moment to actually spot Nico. How he managed to sink into shadows when the hallway was brightly lit was a mystery, but manage he did.

Making a beckoning gesture, which naturally drew a scowl from Nico, Will turned back towards his mother. "Sorry, Mum, I didn't introduce you to my friend. This is Nico."

Even before Nico dragged his feet towards the kitchen Naomi's eyes had set to sparkling with delight. Will cringed as, stepping to the side to allow Nico passage through, she hastened forwards and drew him backwards with her into the kitchen with a firm hand. "Nico! So nice to finally meet you. I've heard all about you from Will."

Wincing at the slight emphasis on "all", Will edged backwards slightly. It was probably better to keep his uncontrollable responses, facial expressions and otherwise, out of Nico's peripheral view. He didn't want to give him any reason to be suspicious.

Nico was silent for a moment in which Will was almost certain he was attempting to emulate a statue with the blankness of his face before he replied. "Has… he?"

Naomi nodded. Her beaming smile dampened none for the monotone of Nico's response. "Yes, Will and I exchange letters at least once a week. He mentioned a couple of times that he's made a friend from another cabin recently." She glanced briefly to Will over Nico's shoulder in a way that was far too suggestive before snapping her attention back to Nico. Will only hoped that Nico couldn't read her expression as well as he could. "A son of Hades, is it?"

"I… what?"

"Just a guess – Will didn't tell me specifically – but I do have a somewhat well-rounded knowledge of the Gods." Her smile widened further, if possible. "I'm right, aren't I?"

"Y-yes," Nico stuttered slightly, causing Will to glance towards the back of his head in surprise. Nico? Stuttering? Was that sort of a reaction even possible? Was he that unhinged and discomforted? "I mean, yeah, you're right."

"Fantastic! I always like to try and pick them. You're, how old are you, probably about Will's age, right? About fifteen, maybe fourteen?"

Will almost groaned. _Here we go_. Naomi Solace was a genius brain surgeon. Almost frighteningly intelligent, she seemed to just _know_ things sometimes, and had an uncanny ability to make startlingly accurate guesses. Will had attempted to urge her to keep a hold upon her analytical tendencies – at times, he had to question whether she was a demigod herself, her intelligence being so reminiscent the children of Athena – and she tried. She did. But in her excitement the mania sometimes… spilled out.

"I turned fifteen a couple of months ago, yeah."

"And where are you from, Nico? I'd guess maybe southern European from your name and colouring – Italian, is it? Spanish?"

And so it went, with Will cringing and attempting to hide his gesticulating responses and Nico muttering his replies to Naomi's rapid-fire queries. Or guesses, more correctly, for she didn't ask so much as make vaguely questioning statements and wait expectantly for confirmation or expression of error. Will loved his mother, but he had to admit that, had he known she would be at home that day, he might have given the trip a miss. Or at least left Nico out the front of the house – although that itself seemed a little harsh. It was just… an awkward situation as a whole.

Made even more awkward when Naomi asked _that_ question.

"Not all that many friends at camp? Well, I'm sure it's not for lack of people trying; you're certainly a nice enough person from what I can tell and I happen to think I'm a very good judge of character. But what about a special someone? Anyone in particular?"

Will felt himself freeze, tense almost painfully with his mother's presumption. Widening his eyes meaningfully, and mouthing what he could only assume was along the lines of _"Mum, seriously? What the hell? Stop,_ please _don't say things like that!"_ – for the life of him Will didn't even know what he said – he attempted to silence her words.

Not that she did, of course. Headstrong was another way to describe Will's mother, almost bullishly at times, and she ploughed through the seemingly impossible, the improbable and what circumstance would necessitate the avoidable without a second thought. At times, it was certainly a favourable characteristic – resilience was definitely an advantage for a surgeon – but in the instance of meeting her son's friend, a friend who she had rightly guessed from the precious few mentions Will had made of him through their written exchange, was something of a crush… no, headstrong was not a favourable characteristic at all.

Naomi didn't even glance towards Will, but he knew she saw his response from the faintest of amused quivers in her lips. Instead she blinked expectantly at Nico.

Nico was silent for a long moment, and Will very much wished he could see his face. Was he angry? Affronted? Upset? Simply surprised? It was so hard to tell from looking only at the back of his head. "Um…"

"No? Not now, or not ever?" Naomi asked. Once more she ignored Will's silent pleas, the slicing motions to he made across his throat urging her to "cut it out". How someone could appear so amiable when asking such intrusive questions Will didn't know. He didn't think he'd seen anyone quite so adept as his mother good-naturedly invading someone else's privacy.

Surprisingly, Nico replied. Will was drawn from his attempts at subtle silencing with the intensity of his words. "I do. I mean, I did have, a little while ago. But I… h- _he_ liked someone else."

"Oh." Naomi actually managed to sound regretful, though for her question or the situation itself Will wasn't sure. "I'm sorry to hear that."

Nico shrugged. "It's okay. I don't really like… _him_ like that anymore."

"Well, I'm sure there's someone else out there for you," Naomi said, and with mortifying and embarrassing directness drew her gaze towards Will. She raised her eyebrows slightly, as though to say _"See what I just did for you there? See what I discovered? You're welcome_ ".

Will didn't need her help. He didn't need her to ask questions of Nico about who he had a crush on and he certainly didn't want her to. It had been an unfortunate happenstance that had found her discovering his own feelings for Nico at all, and she was about the only one in the world who had. It was horribly embarrassing. Love his mum though he did, Will did _not_ want her discovering the nitty-gritty details and incremental progressions of his love life.

Besides, he'd already suspected Nico's crush – on Percy of all people, if Jason Grace's none-too-subtle slip-up was anything to go by, a discovery which just so happened to correlate with Will's newfound aversion to the son of Poseidon. He suspected just as he suspected the reason that aversion it had dwindled like a dying flame. Not completely in one blow, but over time until it apparently vanished entirely. Will didn't mention it, wouldn't speak of it until Nico felt the need to do so, if he ever did. Will was just as happy to let that figment of his past rest firmly in the past.

His attention was drawn from mouthing silently at his mother as Nico turned to glance towards him over his shoulder. His expression was faintly curious, just a little closed – which, questions and context considered, Will had more than anticipated – and the faintest of frowns upon his brow. Then he shrugged and turned back towards Naomi. "Yeah, maybe. I guess I'll see."

To Will's profound relief, Naomi made an effort to move on from the topic of potential love interest and directed their drifting conversation into safer waters – though what the relevance of Nico's favourite TV series was and his favourite flavour of ice-cream were had to do with anything Will didn't know – and he felt himself relax. Enough that he felt able to actually slip past Nico into the kitchen to get him that glass of water that he'd offered before. He put ice cubes in and everything.

Not enough to leave Nico in the clutches of his mother to go upstairs alone, however. That was simply asking for a disaster that Will doubted any amount of mental preparation could brace him for.

* * *

"I'm not your pack horse, Will. You don't just load me up with bags because _you_ feel like it."

"Well then, why don't you just give me –?"

"And I'm not so incapable as to be unable to carry two bags of – what is this? Are these books and, what are these, movies? And did your mum give you _all_ of the biscuits she made?"

Will sighed, pausing in step to turn towards Nico peering through one of the bags slung from his forearms. The laughter of school children and the chatter of conversing parents pushing prams rung across the public park stretching alongside them, a soothing melody to the rumble of cars whipping past "Yeah. But I wouldn't eat them if I were you. You'll probably crack a tooth if you tried, and she has been known to mix up the sugar and the salt."

"How is that even possible?" Nico asked.

"I don't know. Really, I don't. You'd think that after doing it once she'd remember to double check, but she never does."

"And people trust her to poke at their brains?"

"You'd be surprised. She has them lining up."

It was heading into the afternoon and Will was feeling mentally drained. He'd not witnessed an experience like his mother's militaristic questioning for some time, and never upon one of his friends. Couple that with his nervousness that she would somehow miss his warning signals and blurt out her discovery, that yes, Will _did_ actually crush Nico, and probably a lot more than most people realised, and he'd been bordering on neurotic for the greater part of the day.

They'd left after a late lunch that Naomi had ordered – because she truly was an appalling cook – and with arms laden by bags and waving farewell from the curb side, had departed Opal Avenue a solid couple of hours after arriving. Will regretted that he didn't get to spend more time visiting his mother, but he couldn't say that he was entirely upset for the fact.

"Anyway," Nico continued, drawing Will's attention back to the topic at hand. "As I was saying, don't belittle me, Will."

"I wasn't belittling –"

"Because if I really had a problem with helping you carry all of your stuff, no matter how unnecessary some of it is, I wouldn't have offered to do it in the first place."

Will fell silent. That he couldn't argue with. Nico tended to be blunt in his actions as much as his words. Will could very well believe that, if Nico really didn't want to offer him a helping hand, he would have been perfectly comfortable to walk alongside him as Will struggled beneath the multitude of bags he had acquired from home. More than he'd hoped to acquire, too, because it was impossible to leave Naomi without several wardrobes, dinner supplies for a week and half of the contents of the house.

"In that case, then, I won't say anymore about it."

"Yes, please don't," Nico nodded.

"Except thanks."

"That's the third time you've said that already, you realise?"

Will shrugged. "You can never give too much thanks, I always think."

"I happen to disagree."

They began walking once more in easy companionship, with casual conversation and directions on Will's part as he led them back to the train station. Always skirting the subject that Will really wished to discuss, however. Thankfully, whether intentionally or, more likely, entirely by chance, Nico brought it up for him.

"You mum seems pretty nice, though."

Will glanced at him sidelong, just to check if the absence of sarcasm was as vacated from Nico's expression as it was his voice. Surprisingly, he was gratified to see that it was. "Thanks. I wasn't sure if she might have been a bit overwhelming."

"Just a little bit." Nico shrugged one shoulder, adjusting the canvas bags hanging from his arms. "But not in a bad way or anything."

"There's a good way to be overwhelming?" Will asked.

"Yeah, like… I mean, she was obviously just keeping an eye out for you. I don't know, making sure I'm not a sociopath or anything."

"Do you think you managed to convince her?"

"Ha ha." Nico rolled his eyes. As Will grinned he shook his head and dropped his gaze to the ground with a slight thoughtful frown. "I don't think that's a bad thing, though. I mean, it's what mums are supposed to do, right?"

Will opened his mouth to reply with some light-hearted comment or another but paused when he belatedly heard the heaviness in Nico's words. It was thinly veiled and not entirely concealed from view, and Will was abruptly alerted to the reality that Nico had lost his own mum. Year ago, in fact. And more than that, he'd lost his sister too, the one tie he had to the life he'd known back in the early twentieth century. At times Will had to remind himself that Nico was from a different social era entirely. Little things, like his avoidance and derision of anything vaguely technological – except an Ipod, that was - or his confusion for particular cultural references that were dropped easily into conversations that, even after years in the twenty-first century, Nico seemed to struggle with comprehending at times. Sometimes Will wondered if some of his withdrawal from his fellow demigods was because of that difference in lifestyles. But then… that didn't quite add up with what he remembered of the laughing, smiling boy that he'd first seen only briefly years ago, from when Bianca di Angelo was still alive.

Maybe Nico felt saddened to meet Will's mum? Maybe it evoked unfortunate memories that he had attempted to suppress because they hurt too much? Will mentally kicked himself that he hadn't even considered that once throughout the day, even as his logical and medical mind was telling him that it probably wasn't healthy to try to suppress such memories anyway.

 _Fuck logic. If it makes him feel better Nico can do whatever he wants_.

"You're probably right," he finally said, attempting to keep his voice as casual as it should have been. "I mean, overprotective is part of a parent's job description, right?"

Nico glanced up at him with the hint of a smile. A smile that died as he drew his gaze forwards once more, his steps slowing to a stop. His face visibly closed, hardening, and growing into an odd expression of mixed defiance and submission.

Will stopped at his side, nodding an apology to a woman with too-large sunglasses and too-tight jeans as she bypassed them with a scowl and a _clop-clop-clop_ of high heels. Then he drew his gaze along the path of Nico's and felt himself grow momentarily cold.

The man didn't look like a monster. Not from Will's experience of monsters, anyway. He looked far too human, too normal in his tailored business suit and polished shoes that didn't quite fit with his shoulder-length hair and the heavy flop of bangs over his pale forehead. The intensity and focus of his stare upon Will and Nico, however, was what was disconcerting. Even from a distance of twenty feet Will could make out the hard, black flatness of his gaze.

It would have been too good to be true, Will considered, for them not to have happened upon some monster or malicious immortal in their brief trip from camp. Of course there would be _some_ thing. Slipping his left hand towards his wrist, he gently, readily, touched the crescent-sun-shaped charm of Celestial bronze strung on his leather bracelet – little more than a hidden knife it was, but then anything was better than nothing. Will wasn't partial to knives or swords, knew he wasn't as good at fighting with them, but even he had to admit they were far easier to conceal in a diminutive form when passing amongst normal people. Far easier than it would be to hide a bow and quiver of arrows. Besides, he'd gotten better after practicing against Nico's zombie warrior combatants.

"Of course he couldn't let himself be upstaged," Nico murmured at his side. "A parental representative on each side, I guess."

It took a moment for Will to fully register the meaning behind Nico's words. When he did, it was to flinch with surprise and snap his gaze back towards the businessman striding across the distance between them, easily slipping between pedestrians as he went. "That's… your dad?"

"Yeah. That's Hades." Nico didn't seem all that delighted for the fact.

Hades – _Gods, that was Hades!_ – stopped an arm's distance away from them. His eyes were trained on Nico, Will noticed, as they likely had been throughout the entirety of his sudden appearance on the roadside of inner-city Philadelphia. He peered down at his son unblinkingly, and despite their difference in features Will couldn't help but notice the similarity of their expressions. The utter blankness that seemed to express as much in that blankness as words of explanation would have.

"Nico," he finally said. And then nothing.

It could have been a greeting, or a question, or simply an utterance to revive his memories, to be sure that the man did indeed recall his own son's name. Will considered it would be a little harsh if it was the latter. As far as he knew, Hades only had two kids alive at present, Nico and Hazel. How hard would it be to remember two names?

Nico stared at his father for another long moment before he seemed to actively shake himself from his silence. He half-turned towards Will, though his eyes remained upon Hades. "This is Will Solace. You probably know him."

Will didn't know what that meant. Knew him? From Nico or just _knew_ him, in the weird way that gods tended to sometimes? Hades turned his dark gaze upon him and Will was once more discomforted by his resemblance to Nico. He was deathly pale, the sort of pale acquired from spending too little time out of the sun, and lacked even a touch of the natural warmth of skin that Nico had inherited from his mother. Unlike with Nico, however, Will found it difficult to meet his eyes.

"So you're Will Solace. Child of Apollo, yes?"

Will nodded warily. Hades' speculation didn't sound anything like his mother's guesses. Naomi seemed to speak from an educated and purely hypothetical viewpoint whereas the impression Will got from Hades was nothing if not being read like a book. Will didn't think he was the sort of person to be intimidated by any god – much of the time they were so out of touch with reality that it was almost sad if not laughable – but Hades was… different. "Yes, sir."

Hades nodded in reply. "I've wanted to meet you for some time."

"Father…" Nico said, his voice low and thick with something that Will couldn't quite understand.

"Not to worry, Nico. I'm not going to hurt the boy."

"That's probably not really all that reassuring."

Hades didn't draw his gaze from Will at his son's words. He simply stared, unblinking, and stared some more. Then, with a sudden twitch that almost caused Will to flinch, his lips drew into the faintest of smiles. "Well. I suppose you'll do."

And without another word, Hades skirted around him and strode down the sidewalk in the opposite direction to that which he had arrived. Will watched in leave and, though he didn't blink or turn aside from the broad back of the God of the Underworld, he still managed to miss the actual second that Hades vanished.

He released his breath in a heavy gush and finally eased the hold he had on his leather-strung knife-charm. Glancing to Nico, Will stilled his tongue for a moment to simply observe him. Nico didn't meet his gaze, watching the path his father had disappeared along with the faintest shake of his head.

Finally, he turned his eyes up towards Will. "Sorry about that."

Will shrugged with forced nonchalance. "Short and sweet. No drama. I hardly had a chance to get scared."

"Were you scared?"

Smiling crookedly and absolutely refusing to be embarrassed for the fact, Will nodded. "Obviously. No offense or anything, Nico, but your dad's just a little bit unnerving."

Nico stared at him for a moment, blinking slowly. Then he shook his head and gave a small smile of his own. "If it's any consolation, he's not usually like that. I mean, yeah, he always tries to be intimidating – I think he takes it as a point of pride to strike fear into the hearts of mortals – but he's not actually that bad. Not really."

"Good thing I'm not mortal then," Will replied easily. "It would suck if all of your friends wet themselves every time they met your dad."

"You're telling me." Nico's smile widened. "I commiserate with you."

"With me?"

"You're mum's a little unnerving too. Nice – she is, she's nice – but…"

"Overwhelming?" Will offered, drawing upon his words of minutes before.

"Exactly."

"Do you think he didn't like me?" Will couldn't help but ask.

Nico paused in the act of shifting the bags slung from his arms into a more comfortable hold. He raised an eyebrow. "You're seriously asking that?"

"Wouldn't you? He didn't exactly seem receptive to, like, _anyone_."

Nico snorted, shaking his head. With a roll of his eyes, disdaining even to reply, he grabbed Will on the wrist and drew them once more down the sidewalk. He muttered something beneath his breath that was too low for Will to tell if it was even in English or not, sparing an exasperated glance over his shoulder every other minute.

Will let himself be drawn. He let Nico lead the way and didn't shake himself loose from his grasp even when they descended the stairs onto the platform and had to juggle one-handed for his student card. There was no way in Tartarus that he would tug loose of Nico's hold, not when Nico had been the one to initiate their contact. He'd been less inclined to withdraw from contact lately – though Will suspected it was more resignation for his persistence than actual inclination towards a friendly embrace - and had even inaugurated his own upon occasion. Mostly a disgruntled elbow in the ribs or a poke to the shoulder, but sometimes, just sometimes, it was… if not overtly friendly, then at least neutral. They'd spent half of yesterday just leaning against each other as Will dozed and Nico ploughed his way through _'The Lord of the Rings_ '.

Will had to wonder at that. In retrospect, he wondered if his belief in Nico's change of heart, his gradual tendency towards allowing Will to lean against him, was solely dependent upon resignation. Was he just allowing it? Was he simply being nice to Will in subsiding in his objections towards an elbow or chin resting on his shoulder? Because, blunt as Nico was, tactless as he could be, Will had come to the understanding that Nico really was nice. Not affectionate or openly fond of others, but _nice_. In a hard love kind of way, yes, but it was certainly there. In many ways, the infrequency of the arousal of that kindness made it only more precious.

Maybe it was that which had urged his deterrence from Will. Or maybe the first meeting with Will's mum, the first time that Will had met Hades, didn't go quite as well as he'd thought they had. Had Naomi been too overwhelming, despite Nico's assurances that it was of the 'good' kind? Had he said the wrong thing in his two-word response to Nico's dad? Or maybe he shouldn't have admitted that he though Hades was scary at all. Did Nico think that his opinion of Hades in any way reflected upon Nico himself? It was a commonly accepted norm amongst demigods that a person wasn't judged so much by their godly parents as they were their own actions; how could they be when the gods so often demonstrated tendencies towards lunacy?

Will didn't know. And that was the most frustrating part. He didn't know, and he hadn't asked. Maybe he should have asked more on the train trip back from Philly, as they caught a taxi and then walked the short distance back to camp. Blessedly free of monsters, too, which was a relief given that they were loaded down with bags. It was just… it had seemed like the day had gone so well, all things unexpected considered. Will didn't want to poke the sleeping dog.

He was rapidly and sorely coming to regret his hesitancy. At least in that regard.

* * *

A/N: Hi, everyone! Thanks for reading the story and I hope you're liking it so far. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions or (deep breath) criticisms, please leave me a review. If you'd like to say anything, actually, it would make me so happy to hear from you. Thanks!


	6. Chapter 6 - Was It Just One Step Too Far

A/N: Two chapters in one day! I feel so proud of myself :D Beware the fluff as it sweeps on through.

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Was It Just One Step Too Far?**

~ ** _December_** ~

If Will was to hazard a guess, to pull one particular incident from his memories that he thought would be most likely to have tripped Nico over the edge, to have scared him into fleeing, it would have been that on December twenty-first. That incident… Will couldn't quite bring himself to regret it, but that had most likely been the tipping point.

They'd made a habit, the two of them. A habit that persisted despite the chilling of winter that blanketed most of Camp Half-Blood in a thick quilt of unbroken snow, that weighted the leaves of the nearby forest with top hats of ice and froze the lake to a sludge. And that was to take a canoe out onto that lake and spend an hour or two simply letting the waters carry them wherever they would.

Most of the time they brought a game of sorts along with them. Will had discovered, quite by accident, that Nico was something of a diehard Mythomagic fan, and the deck practically lived on the canoe for how often they used it. That discovery was a wonder to Will, and not because it was unexpected for Nico to enjoy playing a game, because of course it wasn't. If expectations were anything to tailor Will's suppositions, the competitive fixation that Nico demonstrated only when a deck of cards or the board of a game was spread would have directed him towards favouring Mythomagic rather than approaching it with nonchalance.

No, Nico was diehard to the extreme. It was almost a struggle to get him to play anything but Mythomagic sometimes, and Will rarely bothered to try. It was something of a delight to Will when he discovered how animated Nico became throughout the play. Not always a positive animation – he utilised his practiced frowning and scowling skills to the best of his ability more often than not – but sometimes it was. Sometimes he would smile, or his eyes would light up to give a layered depth to the usual flat darkness, and he would raise his voice as he so rarely did in objection to some 'cheat' that Will had apparently made.

Will had come to bless the fact that he'd kept his old Mythomagic card deck, even after his own enthusiasm for the game had dwindled with time. It had certainly rekindled in the past months and the reason for such an arousal sat across from him on the little canoe.

He watched at Nico pursed his lips thoughtfully, brow wrinkled in a slight frown as he scanned across the chessboard. Will wasn't particularly skilled at chess, regardless of the fact that he quite enjoyed the game. He simply wasn't all that strategic, and had learned his place three years ago when Lahni, daughter of Athena, had thoroughly defeated him in less than five minutes flat. But, as he was coming to anticipate, Nico enjoyed it. His competitive streak surfaced despite the fact that, before two months ago, he'd never played a single game of chess in his life.

Nico's gloved hands drifted above the board for a second nearly, touching his knight before he curled his fingers and drew it back to his lap to contemplate the board once more. Will released a heavy, audible sigh that blew a plume of fog into the air and tipped his head backwards to gaze skyward. "For Gods sake, Nico, just move your piece already."

"I'm considering my options."

"You've been 'considering your options' for a solid five minutes now."

Nico didn't even glance towards him. His concentration didn't waver for a moment. "Don't judge me for my methods."

"Even if they're ridiculously slow?"

"Maybe you should take some more time with your own moves. Then you might not be losing so dismally."

Will couldn't argue with that. The black pieces on the board certainly outnumbered his white. What could he say, really? He knew he wasn't a strategist. Besides, he didn't mind losing. Sometimes. Okay, _occasionally_ , and only if it was in chess.

Drawing his eyes across the lake, he took a deep breath of icy air. A chill flooded his lungs, throwing his mind into clarity from where it had drifted towards dozing in the snug warmth that was scarf, hat, gloves and a full three layers of jackets. Winter hit Camp Half-Blood like a colliding truck, and overnight it could go from wilted green grasses to snow thick enough to shape snow angels in.

The canoe hardly moved, but Will didn't mind. The sludge that was the top layer of the lake had been broken from a flat plane by a score of hippocampus that leap through the air in excitement that morning when Percy and Annabeth had visited camp to wish everyone a Merry Christmas before leaving again. Well, mostly Percy, Will suspected, but for once he didn't find himself objecting to the son of Poseidon's arrival. Mostly because Nico hardly glanced up from his book to offer a short greeting and accept the proffered well-wishes, but still. Percy wasn't a bad guy, was a remarkably good guy, even, and Will wasn't stupid enough to know that his aversion from the other boy had somewhat biased origins.

The click of a chess piece onto the board drew Will's attention back to Nico. His face had smoothed from its hard planes of concentration into satisfaction that Will had come to recognise as being deadly in and of itself. At least when a game was concerned. He leant forwards in his seat and peered across the board. "What did you do?"

Nico gestured towards the knight that he'd almost touched before, now sitting four squares and an L-shape away from its previous position. "You should really have been able to see that from the second you looked at the board."

"Not everyone has eidetic memory, you know."

"I don't have eidetic memory."

"For games you do."

"That's different."

"Hardly." Will scanned his eyes across the board, assessing the damage. He had an ominous feeling that he was missing some integral play. "It really took you five whole minutes to decide to move a piece you were going to move five minutes before that anyway."

Nico shrugged, the thick shoulders of his winter jacket bunching up around his ears. "It paid off."

"How so?"

"I'll win in three moves and there's nothing you can do about it."

Will glanced up at him, eyebrows rising. "Seriously?"

Nico only shrugged again, but that small, satisfied little smile settled back upon his features once more. It was almost smug. Sadly enough, pathetically, really, Will wasn't quite so disgruntled by such a response from Nico as he would be from anyone else.

Shaking his head, he slumped back into his seat. The benches of the canoe were hard and cold, a little uncomfortable, and the pillows they'd brought along with them didn't do all that much to help. Reaching down into the hull, Will drew forth a pair of apples. He tossed one to Nico, who caught it deftly, before biting into his own.

"You know,' he said around a mouthful, "you really should just let me teach you how to play video games. You'd be good at them. You know we have just about every gaming system under the sun between all of the cabins."

Nico scrunched his nose slightly, though Will wasn't entirely sure if he did so in response to his words or the apple he peered at in his hands. Will had realised that one of the many reasons Nico seemed to neglect a well-rounded diet was simply because he was a picky eater. No, it was more than that. He was a _very_ picky eater. Will had seen him turn his nose up at pizza because it had "a little bit too much cheese" on it. What in the Hades? How could anyone complain about _too much cheese_? Will didn't even know.

That was to say nothing of a bruise on an apple. Will was very attentive to such bruising these days. It had taken him too long to actually get Nico to eat fruit when directed for him to undo all his hard work with such an oversight.

"Weren't you the one who always says I'm a techno retard?" Evidently finding his apple met the perceived standard, he took a bite before pointing it towards Will. "You're sending me mixed messages."

"Mixed messages? Says you who supposedly can't use a cell phone but handles an Ipod easily enough."

"They're too entirely different things."

"Not hardly."

"And besides, necessity dictates I know how to use a music player. It's that or –"

"Listen to the stupidity of your fellow demigods, I know." Will grinned as Nico scowled at him around another mouthful. "It's a shame, that. You could make a small fortune with the Aphrodite cabin for all the gossip you just _happen_ to hear."

"If you're insinuating I'm using underhanded means to acquire that knowledge –"

"I'm not." Will shook his head. Then he paused, glancing sideways in contemplation. "But that's an idea. Maybe we could make something of this."

Nico frowned. "No. Not going to happen. You know I don't like actually talking to people as much as I can."

"Which is where I come in. I could be your translator."

Shaking his head, Nico flicked a piece of apple towards him. Will snatched it from the air and flung it right back. "You'd never do something like that."

"Like what?"

"Like sell people out for a profit." Nico nudged him with a foot. "You're too much of a goody-two-shoes."

"Is that Nico di Angelo speech for 'a nice person'?"

"It might just be. Don't know."

Will felt his grin widen. Backhanded compliment or not, he'd take it. "Well thanks."

"You thank people too much."

"So you've said."

"Wasted breath. You should listen to me more."

"I listen to you plenty," Will said, hoping a second later that his words didn't sound too intense. He did; he listened to Nico almost too much at times. It astounded him how, sometimes, when Nico spoke, he would forget just about everyone else in the room. That wasn't such a good thing, especially considering the possibility of upcoming cabin counsellor meetings. It was almost a concern that Will and Nico both had to attend such meets.

 _I really like him. Really, really like him_ , Will thought, not for the first time over the past weeks. It had been a realisation slow in dawning, but when it had the illumination had shone upon a world of possibility. Possibility that hadn't yet been explored and wouldn't be explored unless Will took that next step.

The problem was… he didn't even know if Nico felt half of what he did for him. He could ask, certainly, but just coming out and stating his feelings left the situation far to open to debate and discussion that would most likely end in awkward avoidance on Nico's part. Will knew him well enough to anticipate that much.

He didn't know what he should do, what he should attempt. But Will simply knew that he had to do _some_ thing. The waiting, the doing nothing, was slowly gnawing upon him

"…ll. Will. Hello, have you gone deaf?"

At the nudge of Nico's foot into his knee, Will blinked into awareness once more. "Sorry, what?"

Nico gave a long-suffering sigh – he really had been spending too much time with the members of the Apollo cabin to be able to pull it off so well – and tossed his half-eaten apple over the side. Something with a purple tentacle snatched it beneath the surface an instant later but neither Will nor Nico paid it any mind. "I said, are you going to finish the game?"

Will glanced back towards the chessboard and what he could now make out would very definitely end in Nico's victory. He'd use his second knight to take Will's queen, then his bishop to block the rook and then Will would have no choice but to move his king into the path of a pawn. A _pawn_. Of all things to lose to, why did his king have to be felled by such a trivial player?

"I don't see how there's much point. You're going to win anyway."

"That's not the point of the game. You're supposed to play to the end."

"Even when it's clear who's going to win? No questions asked and with absolute certainty?"

"Of course. That's what you do in a game. Into completion."

Will shook his head. "Remind me never to play Monopoly with you."

Nico raised an eyebrow. "What? Why?"

"Because –"

"Will!"

The sound of his name being called echoed across the lake and effectively diverted Will's attention. He glanced over his shoulder at the slight incline towards camp to see Kayla and Austin wandering down the hill. Kayla stood out against the snow like a copper-streaked candle with her vivid red and green hair while Austin was nearly lost beneath the shadows of the sidelong trees, hands stuffed in his pockets and trembling. His shivers were visible even from a distance.

Of course it would be those two. Even with the moderate intake of campers arriving with the coming of the Christmas holidays, Will, Kayla and Austin shared a certain sense of camaraderie at having spent months in one another's company. If someone needed to fetch Will for whatever reason, they'd likely get Kayla and or Austin to do it.

Raising himself slightly in his seat, Will cupped a hand around his mouth. "What?"

Kayla made a pointing wave of her hand over her shoulder as she replied. When she did, the distance and resounding echoes skewed her words. "Chiron…have to talk… oranges… wrap a baby… three fifty!" The repeats in chorus made even less sense.

"What was that?" Nico asked across from him. As Will turned towards him, he shot him a smirk. "Do children of Apollo regularly converse in gobbledygook?"

Unable to help but smile in reply, Will shook his head. He was just as baffled. "I have no idea. Something about a baby?"

"I thought it sounded like a cry for help, though that might have just been Kayla herself."

"A cry for help? Why?"

Nico gestured back towards the shoreline, drawing Will's gaze just in time to see Kayla clamber to her feet from where she had evidently face-planted. "Is she always so clumsy?"

"No. But she lived a good chunk of her life in California and never saw snow before coming to Camp Half-Blood. Can't blame her."

Nico snorted in a sort of derogatory chuckle, shaking his head. "You should probably go and see what she wants," he muttered, and began to swipe the chess pieces into his hands to put the game away. Nodding his agreement, Will helped him pack it away before they both grabbed an oar and set about the slow, slogging paddle back towards shore.

Clambering onto the icy surface, they each wrapped a hand about the damp rope at the prow of the canoe to draw it from the sludgy water. Gloved hands tangled on gloved hands, making it almost more of a trial to work in tandem rather than independently. Not that Will minded so much. Even such a careless, tentative touch of his fingers brushing Nico's sent that familiar butterfly warmth flapping through his chest. If Will needed any other confirmation of just how much he had grown to like Nico it would have been validated by that feeling if nothing else.

Nico sighed with evident relief as they drew the doors of the boat shed closed after stuffing the length of the canoe inside. He dusted his hands off on one another before reaching up and tugging his scarf across the bottom of his chin.

"Cold?" Will asked.

"Of course. It's bloody winter."

"I was just asking out of concern."

"Unfounded concern." Nico turned a very pointed glance towards Will's outfit. "I'm wearing more than you."

"No, you're not. I've got a hat and everything. I know it's actually a crock of bull that you lose ninety percent of your body heat out of your head – obviously; whoever came up with that was full of themselves and didn't consider the logical dissipation of heat from the rest of the body as a whole – but it would still help. Trap the ten percent that actually escapes and all that."

Nico stared at him blankly for a moment, with a glassiness that he sometimes acquired when Will got caught up in a rant of anything even vaguely medical or scientific. "What?"

"I'll lend you a hat," Will surmised. Sometimes it was easier just to keep it short. Nico was hardly stupid – far from it, actually – but he couldn't expect everyone to keep up with the rebounding and wayward focus of his thoughts all the time.

Nico immediately lost his expression of blank detachedness and frowned with another snort. "We've already been through this, and I told you I'm not wearing one of your stupid bobble hats."

"They're not stupid. And personally I think you'd look kind of cute."

Will couldn't help but grin at the glare Nico turned upon him. The glare itself was cute enough – that was at least part of the reason that Will liked to tease him, to elicit it. He'd deduced as much from observation of his own actions. It was the same for when he scowled, or frowned, or smiled or… or just about anything, really.

"Cute isn't exactly the persona I'm striving to embody."

"Oh, so you're embodying a persona, now?"

"Incidentally," Nico said with a sniff. "And I'm doing a better job of it than you are of your doctor's impression. You're pathetic."

Will frowned with mock indignation and propped his hands on his hips. "Pathetic? Not hardly. You know, there was a reason I got made counsellor or cabin seven."

"Really?" Nico gave a crookedly teasing grin. "I thought it was by default."

"I take that as a personal insult, you know." Will lifted his chin proudly. "But wait, by default? You're the definitive 'by default' counsellor."

"Don't try and use my own arguments against me, Will." Still grinning, Nico dropped his chin and turned in the direction of camp.

"Even if they're valid?" Will asked, falling into step beside him

"My arguments are always valid so your question is rendered redundant."

Up ahead, Kayla and Austin, who had paused in their descent to the lakeside, interrupted their banter. "Come on," Kayla called with a wave of her had. "Gods, how long does it take you to put a canoe away?"

"I didn't see you offering to lend a hand," Will called back.

"That's because she'd slip in the snow and wind everyone face first in the water," Austin pointed out, only to utter a burst of laughter as he jumped aside to avoid Kayla's swinging fist of objection. They danced around one another for a moment before making their headlong way back towards camp. Within seconds they were nothing but specks of spraying snow in the distance.

"It's far too cold to be so energetic," Nico grumbled, sinking slightly further into his scarf.

Will glanced at him sidelong. "What happened to your youthful vitality?"

"What youthful vitality?"

"The vitality that all youths supposedly possess."

Nico pursed his lips. "Huh. Never heard of it."

Chuckling, Will slung an arm around his shoulder. Nico only gave a half-hearted attempt to shrug him off; likely the added warmth was begrudgingly appreciated. "You'd warm up if you ran."

" _You'd_ warm up if you ran," Nico rebutted, almost accusing.

"We could just both run together."

Nico grumbled some imprecation beneath his breath. "You and your youthful vitality."

"Maybe we should. Chiron could want to talk about something important – about babies and oranges or some such."

"What?" Nico turned towards him in bemusement.

Will only grinned. Grinned at Nico as he blew a breath of fog upwards that momentarily fluttered his bangs from his eyes. And that grin slowly died as his step unconsciously slowed, because in that instant he took in his pink-chilled cheeks, the slight pursing of his lips, the brush of his fingers as he swept his offending fringe from his eyes, and then met his eyes.

Nico drew to a stop beside him and, turning to slip from beneath Will's arm, raised a quizzical eyebrow. "What?"

Will stared for a moment longer. Stared, berating himself for the consideration that arose demandingly to the forefront of his mind, and then fell prey to it. "Hey, Nico," was all he could manage, before he reached forwards. He curled a hand around the front of Nico's jacket to pull him towards him while the other brushed his scarf from his chin.

And leaned forward to press a kiss against his lips.

Nico was frozen for a moment. Frozen like an ice statue and even as he flushed beneath the warmth his own actions elicited, Will had a moment of fear, of utter terror, that bellowed at him for the reckless stupidity of his actions. But then it was washed away as, with a faint, barely audible sound, Nico eased from his rigid tension, and he was kissing him back.

It was warm to the surrounding cold. It tasted of sweet and fresh and apple, and felt as soft as a gentle handhold. Will barely registered the rise of Nico's hand to wrap around the wrist holding his jacket as his eyes closed and he lost himself in the sensation of minimal contact. He tilted his head just slightly, deepening the touch and felt a brief thrill when Nico responded in kind.

It was over too briefly. With a gentle sigh, they drew apart from one another and the cold wind of winter whipped between them. Will watched, his breath catching and slowing, as, in an uncharacteristic display of openness, Nico gave another gentle sigh and fluttered his closed eyelids open. Eyes blinking wide, he peered at Will, gaze flickering between his with faint question, faint confusion and something that could have been the beginnings of understanding.

Will wanted to pursue that. He wanted to admit what he'd done, why he'd done it, and the feelings behind that. Fuck the hesitancy that had been sitting with him for weeks now, that had swum to the surface of his thoughts only just before in the canoe out on the lake. He wanted to tell Nico, to explain, for Nico to know how he felt.

Opening his mouth to blurt out every word that demanded to be spoken, Will took a deep breath. And was cut off by Kayla's echoing call. "Will Solace, what in the hell is taking you so long? Don't make me come back down and get you."

The unblinking focus of Will's attention, fixed as it was upon Nico's gaze, snapped as they both glanced up the hill in the direction of camp. Kayla was just appearing once more, arms folded in rebuke though the effect was somewhat dampened by the slip that nearly landed her on the ground once more.

 _Wonderful timing, Kayla_ , Will thought. _You couldn't have waited at least another minute or two? What happened to offering a little bit of respect to fellow demigods in their personal struggles? Not to mention your own cabin counsellor._ He shook his head, a grumbled curse falling from his lips.

"You should probably go."

Will glanced back towards Nico at his words, as Nico slowly turned his gaze back to him in turn. He gave a slight shrug, a slight smile, then nodded his head in Kayla's direction.

Will had never felt less inclined to meet Chiron in his life. He would have been perfectly happy, in fact, to disregard any possible duties that could be asked of him, turn back to the boat shed and drawn Nico and canoe out onto the lake once more to have a serious and much needed – much, _much_ needed – talk.

But Nico was releasing his hand from Will's wrist and giving him a gently urging clap on the shoulder that sent him stepping in the direction of camp. Will hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly released his own hold on the front of Nico's jacket, only pausing with his other hand to readjust the scarf across his chin once more.

He wanted to explain. He wanted to at least set a definite anticipation for a discussion to come. But the words that came out were instead, "You could come and see him too, if you'd like. Chiron's not exactly exclusive with meetings cabin counsellors."

Nico scrunched his nose in an expression reminiscent of that he'd given his apple just before. "You kidding? And get roped into whatever work he sets you?"

"It might not be work. And besides, you usually help me out with whatever stuff I have to do anyway."

"Not today I won't," Nico shook his head. "It's cold. And besides, it's nearly Christmas."

"That's hardly an excuse."

"It is for me." Nico shrugged once more as he urged Will onwards with another clap to the arm. "Off you go."

Slowly, reluctantly, Will turned back towards camp. He set off at a jog that became a run, his eagerness to get the meeting with Chiron over with pouring speed into his limbs. He did glance over his shoulder once, however, and that was to see Nico still standing in place, unmoving, where Will had left him. Will couldn't be certain, but beneath the downturned chin and the resulting shadows that hid his expression, he thought he might have been frowning.

The discussion never happened. Oh, there was time, and Will sought out Nico as soon as he had finished with Chiron – a routine meeting that involved neither babies nor oranges but instead an order of medical supplies and their general stocktake. Hardly urgent, but admittedly time consuming.

Unfortunately, in that time Will had the chance to think. To contemplate what had happened and begin to doubt and question, even as he tingled with remnants of delight at the kiss itself. _Finally_ he'd made some sort of display of his feelings.

And yet… Was it the right thing to do? Had it been too soon? Should Will have said something rather than acted, spoken about his feelings despite knowing that Nico was disinclined to partake in deep heart-to-hearts? And then after that Nico had been frowning, had even urged Will to leave, as though… as though…

Had he been wrong? Will thought he'd read the signs, minimal as they were, that Nico liked him even a little bit as much as he did. They spent practically all of their time in one another's company, and Will had even made the daring endeavour of a visit _inside_ of the Hades cabin one afternoon when Nico had taunted him at being to afraid to do so. How could he refuse after that?

Even Nico admitted they were friends, though. Even he had said the words more than once, and he didn't seem particularly objectionable when others assumed that yes, they were indeed in a friendly – if only and unfortunately platonic – relationship. And he similarly hadn't seemed inclined towards taking flight from Camp Half-Blood as he'd been contemplating doing in the aftermath of the battle against the Romans. Will liked to think that he had at least a little to do with that.

But upon Will's seeking him out, and subsequently alleviating him of his headphones, Nico hadn't spoken a word about the kiss. He'd acted as though it hadn't even happened. And that itself had stunted Will's confidence, his inclination to broach the subject. He'd let it lie, had concluded that maybe Nico was just avoiding talking about it because he had to think about it. That he had to contemplate the meaning behind Will's actions in the thoughtful and often gradual way that he had.

Three days later, and Will was well on his way to thinking his silence might not have been such a good idea after all. It may, in fact, have been his biggest mistake yet.


	7. Chapter 7 - To Admit One's Error Is A

**Chapter 7: To Admit One's Error Is An Embarrassing Thing  
**

 ** _~25_** ** _th_** ** _December~_**

Will was not one for sulking. He'd never been the sort of person prone to falling into melancholy and gazing listlessly into thin air as he drew himself further and further into a slump. That would never help anything, would never solve anything.

No, Will didn't sulk. He didn't closet himself away from everyone to think because he could think perfectly well when _doing_ something. And Will had always found it easier to think over distressing situations when his hands were busy. Will set about fletching arrows, rolling and cutting bandages, checking through the medication stores in the infirmary and largely trying to distract himself.

Not that it worked. Will doubted that anything could really distract him from his thoughts.

Where had he gone wrong? Or, more correctly, when had he gone _most_ wrong? The fact that Will wasn't sure, couldn't pinpoint the exact and greatest trigger that could have driven Nico into flight, was probably the worst part of it.

For flee Nico had. He was very obviously running from something, from a sudden burst of understanding, of realisation, of fear. Why else would he be running as though there were Hades' hellhounds on his heels? No, that was a poor analogy; Nico wouldn't be running that fast from his father's dogs.

Will was upset. He was angry, both at himself for his actions and at Nico for leaving without an explanation. For leaving at all when Will had come to believe that he wouldn't. He was confused, and frustrated, and he wanted nothing more than to send an Iris message to Nico and demand to know firstly if he was okay and secondly, if he was, why the hell he had left without saying anything?!

He didn't, though. Will had held a polished gold _drachma_ in his hand and had contemplated using it several times in the past twenty-four hours but he never did. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what would happen if he called, whether Nico would even answer or, if he did, what he'd say if he responded. That he didn't like Will the same way? That it was an in-the-heat-of-the-moment reaction that had driven him to respond at all when Will had kissed him? That no, he wasn't ready for such a relationship, or that he didn't think he'd ever be ready or, perhaps the most horrible, if he never thought he'd be ready for anything with _Will_.

That would be… that would be the _worst_.

Will wasn't oblivious to the curiosity and concern of the rest of the Apollo cabin. He gained several curious glances throughout the day, and just as many tentative approaches to ask if he was okay, if there was anything he needed, if he wanted help with cutting bandages or why he was rifling through the medicine cabinet in a thorough checking when he'd already done so twice that day.

As he knew was expected of him, Will only gave an attempt at a smile and reassured his half-brothers and sisters that he was alright and that no, he didn't need anything and that he appreciated their offers of assistance. From their expressions, the deepening frowns of concern and increased frequency of glances, he doubted he truly convinced any of them.

None of them knew. Or perhaps they didn't know but suspected the cause for his distress, though he doubted it given that little Fionn had approached him seven times in the one day to ask him "are you alright?" That was what Will thought, but even though he sort of hoped as much, as he went to bed on Christmas Eve – the day that Nico had left – he found that he didn't much care whether they did.

Kayla found him sitting on the steps of Apollo's cabin early the next morning. He'd had difficulty sleeping and so, quite unlike himself and similarly unlike every other child of Apollo, he arose before the sun. Though not quite listlessly staring, his largely sleepless night found him in something of a distant daze, idly drumming a slow, discordant tune in a light patter on the step beside him.

Kayla slumped to the step beside him with a sigh. Will barely spared her a glance to notice that she was dressed in a nightrobe and slippers over her flannelette pyjamas, shoulders hunched and shivering as she blew out a gust of white fog. With a hand she flipped up the panda-eared hood of the robe until it slipped down to nearly cover her eyes, hiding the vibrant shade of her hair as she did.

"It's cold," she commented.

Will nodded, continuing to tap his tune. "It's winter."

"No shit."

"I just meant that there's a reason for it being cold."

Kayla nodded and silence ensued once more. Detachedly, Will became aware of a slow _drip…drip…drip_ as one of the stalagmites decorating cabin seven's veranda awning, struggling against the chill to melt into water. The camp was silent so early in the morning, and Will was put in mind of the times that he and Nico had taken themselves into the privacy of darkness, swords aloft, to fight summoned zombies and skeleton warriors. They hadn't done so for some time, and not because Nico had been distant – which he hadn't – or because of Will was awkward about the kiss – which he wasn't. Not entirely, anyway. It had just become too cold to venture out at night.

Will found that he missed those training sessions. He hadn't even realised how much until that moment.

"You know," Kayla said with a low voice. Then she paused.

Will glanced towards her, huddling slightly into the heavy winter jacket that seemed to radiate a heat of its own. "What?"

Kayla chewed on her lips for a moment before she shot him a sidelong glance. "I think you should call him."

"Who?"

Apollo-children's token long-suffering expression was right on the mark as Kayla rolled her eyes towards him. "Don't be stupid, Will."

Will had to give a small smile at that, despite not feeling particularly inclined towards merriness, despite that it was Christmas Day. He and Kayla, and Austin too, had become close over the past months in a way that Will hadn't been with his siblings before, what with the three of them being the sole occupants of cabin seven for a significant portion of that time. Well, them and Nico, who had joined them with increasing frequency.

The passing thought served to chase the smile from Will's lips.

Kayla gave a sigh. "See? That."

"See what?"

" _That_." Kayla gestured towards him with an encompassing gesture. "You just thought of him and now you're upset again."

"I'm not upset."

"Don't try and deny it."

"I'm not," Will persisted. The drumming of his fingers hitched their pace and force slightly but he hardly noticed. "I'm _worried_. He just took off and I don't even know why. What if something happened? What if he needs help? You know he's not the sort of person to ask for help when he needs it."

Rubbing the heel of his palm across his forehead, Will took a deep breath and closed his eyes briefly. He tried to ignore the voice in the back of his head but it was difficult when it was so true. _Liar_. _That's not the main reason, and you know it. Even if you are worried, it's not the_ main _reason._

Will shunted the thought to the side with an irritated growl. He blinked in surprise as he heard the sound – it sounded like a frustrated animal – and he realised he might actually be upset, more so than even he realised.

"So call him," Kayla suggested once more.

With a sigh, forcibly stilling his fingers from drumming as they had begun what could only be considered near-banging, he turned from his half-sister and drew his gaze across the camp. "I don't think I can do that."

"Why not?"

"Because…"

"You're scared?"

The sound of Austin's voice drew both Will's and Kayla's attention towards the doorway to the cabin. Austin, dressed in jumpsuit pyjamas of vibrant orange that contrasted starkly with his dark skin, shuffled from foot to foot before sidling through the doorway. He stepped between them and lowered himself down to the step between them as the door clicked shut behind him.

Austin turned towards Will with a knowing smile that made Will just slightly more uncomfortable than the distinct discomfort he'd been feeling for a whole day now. "Right?"

There was a pause, but only briefly before Kayla prodded with, "Are you?"

Turning once more towards the campgrounds, eyes drifting over the constantly crackling flames of Hestia's hearth, Will struggled for a moment before accepting defeat. He nodded, dropping his eyes to his hands.

"You really like him, don't you?"

Tensing slightly, Will drew his gaze to Austin. "Is it that obvious?"

Austin shrugged. "Maybe not to most people, but we have sort of been spending more time with you and just you for, what, three months? You and Nico?" He shook his head. "I'd have to be pretty blind not to see it."

Will heaved a heavy sigh. "It really is pretty obvious, huh."

"The kiss kind of gave it away."

"What?" Kayla asked with a start. "What kiss?"

"A couple of days ago, down near the lake just after we came to get Will for Chiron." Austin turned his attention towards Kayla for the first time. "Didn't you see that?"

Kayla shook her head. A smile spread slowly across her face and in moments she was grinning at Will. "You did? About time!"

Will dropped his chin onto a palm, elbow on his knee, and tried to withhold the flush that flared in his cheeks. It was a lost cause, he knew, and despite considering that he hadn't thought kissing Nico to be embarrassing before that moment, he was certainly feeling it with Kayla's words.

"So what's the problem? I mean, he kissed you back, didn't he?" Kayla glanced towards Austin. "Didn't he?"

Austin only shrugged and turned towards Will expectantly. Fidgeting awkwardly, reaching his hand up to scrub at the back of his head, Will shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, I thought so, but…"

"What did he say after you talked about it?" Kayla persisted, her face open and expectant. As Will remained silent for longer and longer, her expectancy fell into incredulity. "You didn't talk about it?"

"It just didn't seem like it was the right time or… or something. I mean, he didn't seem particularly inclined to talk about it since either." Will strove to shove the discomfort of that reality from his mind. He'd been thinking about it enough over the past three days.

"Not the – not the right –" Kayla choked on her own words. "Didn't seem – _inclined_ –"

"Breathe, Kayla, breathe," Austin coached in his usual calming voice. A slight smile quivered at the corners of his lips as he turned towards Will. "You too, Will. Don't pass out on me."

"I'm not going to pass out," Will muttered, offering another attempt at a smile that failed as dismally as those before it. He felt heartened that his friends considered his relationship with Nico important enough to approach him about, even if it was a little embarrassing to discuss. He owed them more than simply brushing aside their efforts. "It's not that I didn't want to talk about it, but the more I thought about it the more it seemed like I shouldn't. Talk about it, or whatever."

"You think too much," Kayla said when she'd finally regained some of her composure.

"You don't say."

"No, seriously. You do." She tugged at the hood of her nightrobe, pressing it more closely to her face with a shiver of hunching shoulders. "Do you really think he wouldn't like you? I mean, really?"

"I'm not sure. I don't really know what to think."

"Well, then, listen to me as the opinion of an outside observer." Kayla straightened her back and lifted her chin slightly into a pose of an informal orator. "Now, I didn't see your kiss or anything –"

"Really, there wasn't all that much to see," Austin murmured.

"- but I have seen you two every other day over the last few months. And I've realised more than just the obvious."

"The obvious?" Will asked.

"That _you_ like _him_." Kayla gestured with one hand each at the emphasis upon each word. "I mean, that much is pretty obvious to anyone with a pair of eyes."

"Really?"

"Not _really_ ," Austin comforted him, evidently sensing Will's alarm at such a possibility. Not that Will exactly minded that other people would know but he'd rather _know_ that they knew. "Just to us, who have seen you enough. Probably not everyone else so much."

"But more than that," Kayla continued as though Austin hadn't interrupted at all. "I've seen how Nico's changed. And that is something that everyone else has to have noticed, too."

Will nodded. That at least he'd too witnessed; Nico had been nothing if not closed-off, surly and unapproachable in the past, and for reasons that Will liked to think had at least a little to do with him he'd broken out of that reclusive shell. Slowly, and only fractionally, but distinctly enough. He wasn't quite as disregarding, he didn't glare even nearly as much, and he was even starting to talk to those around him in more than sarcastic slurs and thinly veiled insults. The initial wariness of the rest of the children of Apollo at being confronted with Nico's new choice of seating at dinner time had rapidly dwindled as they realised that he wasn't going to turn his knife and fork upon them and attack them with his morbidity. In fact, it had all but vanished, only briefly resurfacing when tales of the aptly named Zombie Dinners were laid out by an enthusiastic Kayla for the delightful terror of her siblings.

The other campers were still a little wary of him but at cabin seven's example even that was dwindling. There had been little cause for complaint really, not on Will's part and hopefully not on Nico's, which erased most of his suspicions that Nico's distress flight had been triggered by the actions of another demigod. Which left the situation with Will.

 _I should have spoken to him_. _I should have just spoken to him, either straight after we kissed or as soon as I got back from seeing Chiron. Why didn't I speak to him?_

"Do you know why he left?" Austin asked quietly.

"I think it's pretty obvious why."

"Yeah, but do you know for sure?" Kayla impressed, leaning onto Austin's shoulder as she peered around him to Will with a mixture of eagerness and support upon her open face.

Will shrugged, dropping his chin onto his palm once more. "It's not like I've been able to ask him."

"I suggested he should call him. Or Iris message him," Kayla said, filling Austin in.

"Why haven't you?"

Will shrugged once more. "Just don't want to, you know, be disappointed."

"Could you be more disappointed than you are sitting here and convincing yourself of more and more outlandish and unlikely explanations?" Austin asked.

"Yes. Definitely yes."

"But it's not good to just sit here thinking. Or –" Kayla held up a quelling hand as Will glanced towards her, as though to stem any words he might have uttered, "- to spend hours folding bandages, or fletching arrows, or, I don't know, doing laundry or something."

"I haven't been doing any more laundry than usual."

"Not yet you haven't. You need to talk to him. Personally, I think Nico would feel the need to talk to you just as much. It was a bit stupid of him to run – honestly, what kind of a demigod runs from a challenge, regardless of what that challenge is? – but whatever. He's always been a bit flighty, hasn't he? Taking off into his shadows all the time?"

Will turned once more towards the grounds. That was true. Nico had effectively disappeared for years, barely glimpsed at Camp Half-Blood after his sister had died. And when he was seen again, when his presence was actually noticed, it was almost as though he was a different person. Maybe that was how Nico dealt with his troubles? Did he just… isolate himself? Run away from everything?

It rekindled some of the anger within Will. It wasn't _fair_. If Nico was upset about something, he should come to Will and talk about it. He should ask for help, or air his worries, or even blame Will for the situation he'd put him in. Anything would be better than just running away to the Gods only knew where. That was _stupid_.

"I happen to agree," Austin murmured, his warm voice a discordant contrast to the coolness of dawn. It took Will a moment to realise he was agreeing with Kayla's words rather than his own thoughts. "At the first chance you get, you should talk to him. And so," with a slight grunt, he swung himself to his feet, "I think that's our cue to check out, Kayla."

"Huh?" Kayla asked, before drawing her attention in the direction that Austin gestured.

Will followed his pointed finger, in the opposite direction of the majority of the camp and up the very slight incline towards the north. His hand slipped from his chin, dropping to grasp at the edge of the step he sat upon as his eyes locked on the slight, dark figure heading towards the cabins.

He barely heard Kayla and Austin leave. They didn't speak another word and gave him the privacy of a closed door when they slipped back inside the cabin. Will didn't glance over his shoulder to check that they actually were gone for he hardly cared. His attention was focused entirely upon Nico as he trudged with evident weariness into camp.

He looked small and despondent from the slightly dejected hunch of his shoulders. Even at a distance, even in the feeble morning light, Will could make out a faint redness around his eyes. It was starkly apparent on his even-paler-than-usual face. His hands were shoved into the pockets of his jacket and he visibly trembled with the chill of the morning. Will didn't rise to his feet to approach him, and not because he wasn't wearing the proper shoes to walk in the snow. He simply sat and stared.

Nico stopped when he came in line of Zeus' and Hera's cabins. As though suddenly aware of Will's attentiveness, he lifted his chin and immediately met his gaze from across the grounds. What Will saw brought him up short. It was unexpected, unanticipated, and lacking in the faint accusation, or withdrawal or even dislike that he might have expected given the circumstances that he _knew_ had driven Nico's flight the day before.

Instead, there was sadness. A deep, aching grief that seemed to weigh down his features. There was pain there too, as though an old wound had been ripped open anew. And yet there was also relief, and a distinct lack of the urgency that had driven him at such a breakneck speed not twenty-four hours before.

Will was brought up short. It was not what he had expected and he didn't quite know how to approach that unexpectedness. All of the discarded possibilities of how to respond that he'd tossed about uselessly since the day before were rendered redundant. From the very small, very faint but still very there smile on Nico's face, it appeared that he might have been somewhat… wrong in his assumptions.

Only one thing rung definite in his mind, touched with the admonishment of Kayla's tone. _Yeah, we need to talk._

* * *

On the night of Christmas Eve, Nico found himself in a hospital. That in itself was a surreal experience, as he'd never been to a modern hospital unless he counted the infirmary at Camp Half-Blood. It was a bit of a daunting experience, but Nico was initially unfazed even by the unfamiliarity as he hastened through the successive wards at a pace barely slower than a run. Fluorescent lights buzzed and flickered overhead, footsteps clicked at variable volumes alternating between linoleum and carpet, and the murmur of voices in rooms bypassed and nurses as they swept with practiced efficiency sounded through the halls. Nico barely noticed any of it but to catch a glimpse of the room numbers etched into the head of each door.

He'd followed Hades' directions, the words that had been murmured to him through the shadows with quiet compassion that was so unlike his father. It had been the name of a hospital, a room number and an explanation. Nico had hardly needed more than that.

Room two-oh-five was a share room, a pair of beds half curtained stationed opposite one another. When Nico arrived, that on the right had been dimmed and darkened, the mother occupying the bed fast in sleep and the newborn in the standard-issue cradle swaddled into silence at her side. Across from her…

They were a picture perfect family. Small, with just the three of them, they had somehow managed to fit mother, father and newborn baby all into the one narrow hospital bed. The mother looked exhausted, her dark hair only emphasising the paleness of her pallor, eyes drifting towards shut and arms faintly trembling even as they held her own swaddled babe in nurturing closeness. Tired as she appeared, however, she didn't look inclined to sleep. An expression of peaceful adoration blossomed on her face as a small smile, a smile that was mirrored on the bearded face of the man beside her.

Nico leaned against the door frame in silence and watched them. A perfect family, bright and glowing with love for one another and bathing in the simple presence of the newest addition to their ranks as she slept with the peacefulness of stressed-induced exhaustion. Nico could hardly remember what that was like, to have a family like that. Realistically, he'd never had that, had never experienced the wholeness of a mother and a father. But in many ways he felt that the figure of a mother, a sister, had been just as good. Better, even.

He must have made a small sound, maybe a muffled sob as the emotion rose his throat. The mother and father raised their gazes from their fixated staring upon their tiny, swaddled creation and glanced towards him. Faint surprise and query faded back into the smiles that appeared unshakeably strung from their faces.

"Hello," the woman said. She made a nodding gesture across the room to the sleeping woman. "Are you here to visit Belinda?"

Nico struggled to drag his attention from the baby in her arms to glance towards the sleeping woman. He nodded his head in a lie, using the excusing explanation that was provided.

The young woman smiled welcomingly. "She just fell to sleep. They had a rough first night the two of them. I'd say you have a while before she wakes up again to talk to her."

"Maybe head down for a late breakfast or something?" The man, the father, suggested.

Nico shook his head, and like a magnet his gaze was drawn towards the baby sleeping in the woman's arms once more. When he managed to speak it was in barely more than a croak. "No, I'll… I'll just…"

The woman's smile stretched lovingly as she cocked her head at him. "Well, while you wait, would you like to come and meet _our_ baby?" She shifted the bundle in her arms slightly as though there could have been any confusion of whom she referred to. The baby uttered a faint mumble that immediately caught the mother's attention. She set about cooing and hushing, the father dropping a hand to the baby's chest to add his own weight of calming support.

Nico couldn't help himself. He was drawn towards the little family like a moth to the flame. It might have been intruding, but neither mother nor father seemed to consider it as such. From the brief smiles they flashed him at his approach, they seemed nothing if not delighted to show off their little girl to anyone who cared to take a look.

Nico paused at the edge of the bed. His eyes fastened upon the baby – _the_ baby – and he beheld her fully without the skewing of distance and half-shrouding blankets.

She wasn't particularly pretty to look at. Her skin rwas ed and blotchy and covered patchily in little white spots. Contours of wrinkles folding her skin like a topographic map. Her head was oddly shaped, slightly conical in what Nico vaguely knew as being typical for a baby and a slight frown tugged upon her invisible eyebrows. There was nothing save a faint shadow of darkness to suggest she had any hair at all, but enough to indicate she would be as dark as her mother.

No, she wasn't pretty, but she was certainly beautiful.

 _This is… this is…_ Nico felt his throat close further, making it nearly impossible to breathe. Yet somehow, the word slipped out without his request. "Bianca."

Mother and father glanced towards him with faintly questioning smiles. "Sorry?" The woman asked, cocking her head curiously. "What does that mean?"

Nico shook his head, fighting back the upwelling of tears that threatened to spill forth. "Nothing, just… she reminds me of someone." _Bianca, she's… this is…_ He sniffed back the rising tide of emotion. "What's her name?"

The young parents exchanged a loving smile that was, strangely, faintly sheepish. The father turned towards him, his dark eyes faintly glistening with the full weight of his emotion. "Eve. We've named her Eve. It might be a bit cliché, what with it being Christmas Eve and all but..."

"We just felt like it suited her perfectly," the woman finished.

Nico swallowed thickly, then nodded. "I think… that… you're probably right." The parents beamed at him as though he'd given them the most wonderful compliment in the world.

Nico stayed with the family for only a little longer. It was almost impossible to force himself to leave, to walk away from the tiny little baby that was his sister reborn. And yet leave he did, because it was almost heartbreaking to be in the presence of so much love and joy while he felt the weight of long-held sadness and grief, regret and loss for a sister years gone. He turned and hastened from the room before the tears that swum in his eyes could really burst forth, and without a thought shadow travelled from the hospital in a flurry of darkness.

The rest of Christmas Eve was spent in the Underworld, in the darkness and silence and solitude that Nico had become so familiar with. He secreted himself in a cave-like hole in the side of what could have been a giant termite mound, and let his tears fall. It was miserable, pathetic, really, that he would cry at all and he was only glad that there was no one there to see him. It didn't help all that much, the weight of loss still resting sluggishly upon him, and yet alongside that loss, even amidst all of that heaviness, the darkness and the sorrow, there lingered just a tiny, infinitesimal glimmer of… release.

Bianca had come full circle. His sister was no longer just his sister, but would grow into a young girl, then a teenager, then finally get the opportunity to become the adult that she had never assumed before in the life of the child called Eve. Eve, the baby born on the morning before Christmas to loving and adoring parents. Two, this time, and blessedly free of the duties and responsibilities of a demigod.

Nico found that he quite liked the idea of that. Bianca – his sister reborn – would have the chance at a normal life. And though it still pained him every day to have lost the one attachment he had to his life before being thrust into the twenty-first century, he could almost feel… happy for her. For the soul that had been his sister. She had a family, people that cared for her, and they would always be there to support her.

 _Just like… I sort of have_ , Nico pondered, images of his sister Hazel and Frank, of his friends, Jason and Piper, of Percy and Annabeth and Reyna and even Thalia rising to the forefront of his mind. And Will. Perhaps Will most of all.

Even if Will was being incredibly confusing at the moment – what did it mean to be kissed by someone you hadn't even told you had a crush on and then have him act as though it had never happened?

Shaking his head at the direction his thoughts were turning – the direction they'd been focused for the past three days before he'd thrown himself upon the path of his father's directions and hastened to the side of the newborn Eve – Nico sniffed away the last of his tears and rose to standing. The Underworld was smothered its ever-constant gloom, dark shadows and looming rock faces. The distant figures of drifting souls as semi-transparent ghost-like forms trickled in a continuous line of wandering silence. As Nico turned in place, he could make out the River Styx stretching beyond the wall of Erebus. If Nico squinted hard enough he could just make out the figure of Charon as he urged his ferry along the slowly churning currents.

Nico wasn't dissuaded by the Underworld. He'd certainly spent more than enough time beneath the earth, mingling amongst the dead and simply bathing in the familiar chill of shadows that it didn't faze him in the slightest anymore. But abruptly he wished to be away. He'd shed his tears in privacy, a privacy that no one except Hades himself could possibly intrude upon, and now he wanted away from the dead. It seemed almost sacrilege to be so immersed in death and darkness after beholding the light of new birth. So with a tug of his shadows, Nico fell from the grim scene and leapt in the direction of Camp Half-Blood.

His feet hit the snow with a hard impact, the chill of winter instantly wrapping around him. Nico shivered, stuffing his hands into his pockets and hunching his shoulders. He hadn't worn enough to face the cold, hadn't even spared a moment to grab a scarf as he'd thrown himself from Hades' cabin in mindless flight. Glancing around himself – he'd landed on the edge of a forest that, as indicated by the gently lapping shores of Long Island Sound to his left, was towards the north of camp – Nico could just make out the brightness of a rising sun. Or a setting sun, he supposed, but given the direction – he was fairly certain that the sun rose in the east – and the static silence of the camp he considered it more likely to be the former. Had it really been nearly a whole day that he'd been gone? He always had a bit of an issue with time when he was upset, or in the Underworld for that matter, but really? A whole day? Shivering into his jacket, he set off south. He felt nothing if not numb and exhausted for the weight of the cold and his wearying emotions as they settled themselves back into place, raw from their recent exposure.

Nico tried so hard not to let himself feel. And here was the perfect reason to continue with that attempt. It bloody hurt!

He saw Will the moment he stopped beside Zeus' cabin. Like a magnet, Nico's eyes were drawn from his shoes, from their staring as he watched them rapidly darkening with wetness, and settled upon him across the expansive ring of cabins. What he was doing up so early Nico couldn't fathom, but there he was staring back at him, wide-eyed from his seat upon the step of his own cabin. He was dressed in flannelettes beneath the thick ski jacket his mum had bought for him not two months before, but the idiot was wearing only flip-flops instead of literally _anything_ that would provide more decent coverage of his toes. Shaking his head, a smile drawing its way unexpectedly across his face, Nico started towards him.

He'd developed mixed feelings about Will over the past few months, feelings that had only become more and more confused as he'd considered longer and longer the situation they'd found themselves in but days before. The fact that they had kissed and yet nothing had come of it. Nico was under no allusions that Will had been the one to initiate the momentary act of intimacy. Nico would never have been able to do it himself without feeling the need to whack Will over the head to make up for his momentary slip in character. But then, after that… nothing.

Nico liked Will. He'd liked him for months, and had strived to his utmost to make sure that Will didn't see how much he did. It was no great stretch to realise that one of the most – if not _the_ most primary reason – for his remaining in camp was because of Will. Because of his slowly budding friendship with him and, yes, the crush that he thought he would rather die than admit to anyone.

Will was like his rock. He anchored Nico down rather that letting him drift astray, caught by his shadows and withdrawn from the world at large. Nico realised he'd come to depend upon Will's stability over the past months since the war against the Romans, his friendship just as much as it had slowly grown. Things had been… comfortable. Easy. Will didn't try to change Nico, and seemed nothing if not amused by his scowls and insults. It was weird at first, almost annoying, but Nico had eased with the knowledge that no matter what he did Will wouldn't up and discard their friendship.

And then he'd kissed him.

It might have been something more than a passing fancy that was quelled after its first attempt. Nico might have even wanted it to be something more; he wasn't sure. Will didn't seem inclined to talk about it, and Nico was hardly one to start up a heartfelt conversation of his own inclination, so the matter had simply rested. And they'd fallen back to normal. Or at least Nico had hoped he'd seemed normal. He didn't know how well he'd managed to pull it off given that he was constantly struggling to discern the meaning of Will's actions at the lakeside and every action since. Strange, how the moment he returned to camp after such an emotional experience and the epiphany of sorts that Nico had experienced upon seeing Eve, the concerns and considerations, the speculations, could arise so easily once more.

As Nico crossed the circle of cabins, approaching Will with what he hoped was his usual attitude of sobriety, he hoped he hid his unease. An unease that only climbed to greater heights when he approached Will's open face and wide-eyed expectation. He looked on the verge of speaking though was evidently making an effort to hold his tongue. Nico wasn't entirely sure he wanted to hear what he had to say.

Lowering himself onto the step beside Will, Nico hunched his shoulders against the early morning chill. They sat in silence. Nico kept his gaze trained upon his knees but even so he was aware that Will stared at him. Stared with that wide-eyed confusion that was shadowed by just a hint of something darker, something sadder. Nico didn't know where it came from, but he didn't much like it, didn't like knowing that an expression of even Will's remotest unhappiness was focused upon him. He might tease and curse, insult Will with a vigour that would make some people cringe, but most of it he didn't mean. Not really. He far from disliked Will - about as far from dislike as was possible - but the knowledge of that only made him awkward and blurt out with the sarcasm he rained upon everyone else. It wasn't fair, Nico knew, but it wasn't like he could really help himself. Besides, Will always only smiled in what appeared to be genuine good-humour whenever he batted aside that sarcasm.

Nico fought the urge to shift uncomfortably. He sniffed, the cold chilling his face and threatening to make his nose run. The urge to speak was surprisingly quite prominent - surprising because Nico was usually more than capable of sitting in a silence that generally made others uncomfortable - but he bit his tongue. He got the impression that Will wanted to say something and was just trying to find the right way to say it. Nico didn't know what - about what had made him confused? What had upset him? - so he simply waited, silent and quietly expectant.

Finally, Will spoke. "Are you alright?"

His voice was low and soft, barely above a murmur, but it was the hint of concern in his tone that drew Nico's attention from his knees to Will's face. It wasn't quite the phrase that Nico had been anticipating. Far from his almost constant merry grin, the flush that usually brightened his sun-touched cheeks even further and made the golden freckles across his nose stand out more prominently, Will looked on the verge of frowning. His lips were slightly thinned, and the brightness of his multihued blue eyes was dimmed with the same concern that touched his voice.

"What?"

Will shifted along the step slightly so that they were nearly touching side by side. He leant forwards slightly as though to peer more fully into Nico's face. "You look... sad. Are you hurt? Did someone hurt you?"

Nico blinked in surprise, attempting to ground himself in the rise of his own confusion. Will was a doctor in all but formal qualifications; it was his prerogative to express concern for other people. And yet even so, Nico hadn't expected it to be directed towards him. Even when considering the fact that he was always ordering him to sleep more, to eat better, to dress more warmly or to spend more time in the sun. It was often annoying - very annoying - but Nico hardly noticed anymore. Now, though, Will sounded genuinely worried, as though looking at a wounded patient sprawled on one of his hospital beds.

Shaking his head, Nico dropped his gaze back down to his knees. "I'm not hurt. No one... no one did anything to me."

"Then what happened?"

Nico sighed. He didn't really want to relate what he'd experienced, what he'd seen and felt and come to understand. But this was Will, who in such a short time he'd grown remarkably comfortable with. Probably more comfortable with anyone else in the world, even Jason who seemed to have developed something of a protective instinct too, or Hazel, his actual sister, or Annabeth or Percy who he'd known for years. After Bianca... Will was probably the closest he'd ever been to anyone.

Maybe he owed it to Will, and to himself too, to explain. And not only because he liked Will but because he felt like he _should_ explain after simply taking off the day before. Nico had barely spared a moment to consider what it would have looked like - was that why Will thought someone had hurt him? - but he still remembered the expression of utter confusion and the hint of pain on Will's face in the split second before he'd leapt into shadow-travel and away from camp.

Taking a deep breath, Nico released it with a gush. "I was at Peony Private Hospital," he began, but Will cut him off before he could continue with a start of alarm.

"A hospital? Why were you at a hospital? Are you okay? Are you sick? What did you -?"

"Will," Nico turned towards him with a frown that blessedly silenced Will's rising hysteria. "Shut up for a second."

Will opened his mouth as if to reply, but thankfully managed to fold his lips and fall silent once more. He nodded, made a visible motion of settling himself as an audience, and waited. And Nico, steeling himself once more, began.

He told him, about the message from his father the previous morning, about rushing to the hospital and about meeting Eve and her family. That he'd taken himself to the Underworld afterwards to think, because he simply needed the time to sort himself out. "I felt like..."He paused, struggling to find the right words, to build himself up to the describing of feelings that he was so poor at sharing. The urge died on his tongue and he found himself falling silent. Tucking one leg to his chest, Nico propped his chin upon his knee. He fixed his gaze upon the flickering orange-red-gold of Hestia's hearth, feeling the hint of warmth it radiated over the frozen campgrounds even across the thirty feet that it stood, crackling and flickering in pops and snaps.

At his side Will maintained his silence for a moment longer. Then, hesitantly, he raised a hand and dropped it onto Nico's shoulder. The urge to shrug it off arose in Nico for a moment but died shortly after; he simply couldn't bring himself to bother. Besides, it wasn't quite the same as the weight Will's hand usually had, casual and joking. It was warm, and firm, and in the face of the pervasive chill of winter Nico was thankful for that warmth that somehow managed to seep through the thickness of his jacket. How Will, in nothing but his pyjamas and overcoat, managed to maintain such warmth was a mystery, but Nico wasn't complaining.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that."

Nico drew his gaze sidelong without raising his chin from his knee. "Why? I'm not. It's... it's weird, but it kind of made me..." Not happy, but something else. Relieved? Yes, maybe relieved.

Will didn't urge him to finish his statement. His hand simply tightened briefly on Nico's shoulder and he sighed. "I mean, I'm sorry you had to go through it alone."

"I don't think I would have wanted anyone else to come along," Nico murmured. He had to bite back a wince as he heard his own words as Will might take them. He didn't retract them, however. They were true, after all.

Will didn't seem particularly offended. Or if he was he hid his offence well. "Still. It must have been a lot to go through. It can't have been easy. And..." He trailed off into silence for a second before giving a small snort of self-deprecating laughter.

"What?" Nico asked, raising an eyebrow.

Will shook his head. "Nothing."

"You can't make a sound like that after what I just said and not explain why you did it."

Will twisted his lips, lifting the hand from Nico's shoulder to scrub at the tangle of his golden curls. His expression was nothing if not sheepish. "It's just that... it's really selfish of me, but I have to admit I'm a little bit relieved."

"Relieved? About what?"

"That _that_ was the reason you left camp. I thought maybe..."

Nico turned to face Will so his cheek was resting upon his knee instead of his chin. "Don't just leave a comment like that hanging. You thought what?"

"I thought," Will said slowly, and it sounded as though his words were being drawn unwillingly from his lips, "that you might have left because of me."

Nico stared at him blankly for a moment. Then he frowned. "Because of you? Why? Why would I leave because of you?"

"I thought that you might have been angry at me or something after I kissed you, or freaked out when you realised that I liked you, or maybe decided that you didn't like me that way and didn't want to feel obliged into responding in the same way, or that maybe you thought it was a betrayal of our friendship that I pushed it in that direction when you weren't inclined that way, or that maybe you found the way I teased you annoying, or that I was mothering you too much, or being overly demanding or -"

"Wait, wait, wait." Nico closed his eyes briefly, holding up a hand. When he opened them once more, it was to affix Will with another frown. "What in Hades are you going on about, Will? You are overthinking things way too much and definitely charging in the wrong direction."

Will gave a small smile, that self-deprecation welling up once more. "So I've been told."

"Why would you even think that?"

"Well, what else am I supposed to think? You suddenly up and leave camp without a word as though Zeus was striking lightning bolts at your heels, and just a few days after I basically told you that I crushed on you. What would _you_ think?"

There it was again. The first time he said it Nico had simply brushed off his words as a slip of the tongue, but now... "You like me?"

"Isn't that obvious?"

"No, it's not."

"How is it not? After I just up and kissed you -"

"And then said _nothing_." Nico drew himself up, folding his arms across his chest and pinning Will with a glare. "Do you have any idea how bloody confusing that was? I didn't know what to think of it. For all I know you could just randomly up and kiss people all the time."

Will snorted. "When have you ever seen me do something like that?"

"I don't know! But you could have!"

"Well, I don't. And I kissed you because I like you. If you thought it was so confusing then why didn't _you_ say something?"

Nico opened and closed his mouth for a moment, struggling to grasp at words for an explanation. "Because I... you… you send ridiculously mixed messages. You went running off to Chiron like you had dogs snapping at your heels and then acted like you always did after that."

"I didn't _want_ to go to Chiron straight after -"

"But you did."

"Yeah, but I didn't _want_ to." Will was frowning now too, though he didn't seem exactly angry. If anything, there was a touch of relief in his eyes and - was that a hint of a smile? How the hell did someone smile at the same time as they frowned? "I wanted to explain it, but then afterwards it just never seemed like the right time."

"Three days and it didn't seem like the right time?"

"Exactly."

Nico scowled, tightening the fold of his crossed arms. It really was horribly cold, and the slowly climbing sun wasn't doing anything to alleviate the iciness. "Well, explain now, then."

Will paused, his mouth hanging open. Then he visibly swallowed, his frown smoothing, and a faint flush began to creep into his cheeks. Clearing his throat, he glanced over his shoulder towards the door of the Apollo cabin for some reason before turning back to affix Nico with a stare. Nico couldn't help but fidget beneath its intensity.

"Alright, then. I'll tell you, even though it might be in poor taste talking about this after what you've just told me -"

"Shut up, Will. You're being a bloody idiot."

"I can hear that note of affection in your words," Will said with a small smile. What was with him? Why did insults always seem to rebound off him and provoke a smile rather than anger or even affront? Gods but he was weird.

"You're hearing things," Nico grumbled.

Will only smiled wider. His nervousness seemed to fade with their exchange and when he spoke once more it was with rising confidence. "I'll just come out and say it then, seeing as that might be easier. I like you, Nico. I really like you, and I wanted to kiss you because of how much I liked you. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about how I felt but I thought it would have been obvious."

The words were blunt. They were open, and direct, to the point with no allowance for deviation from understanding. Nico stared at Will, struggling to maintain his scowl in the face of his openness, his smile, the touch of expectancy that mingled with the relief that seemed to arise simply from saying the words. Nico stared and he had absolutely _no_ idea what to say.

Of course Nico like Will. He'd liked him pretty much from the moment they took their first step from companionable cabin counsellors towards friendship. He liked him a lot, and was one of the few people in the world that didn't make Nico want to turn tail and immediately fall into his shadows rather than confront, or attack him with his sword for being _such_ a pain in the arse. Will was a pain, but Nico liked him anyway. He liked it when he smiled, even though it did make him look a bit stupid and was always stupidly out of place and arose at the wrong time. He liked the way he was so comfortable talking to just about anyone but always made sure that he spent the most time with _Nico_. He liked the way he was so passionate about caring for other people, loved watching him at his doctoring work, loved to watch him practice archery, or to fight alongside him when they faced hordes of conjured zombies. He loved sitting next to him at dinner, despite his insistence towards green vegetables and excessive variation of diet. He loved –

Wait, loved? When had it become 'love'. Loved was a little… a little daunting, to say the least. Nico could hardly remember what it felt like to love something, or someone. The closest recollection he had was of Bianca and that felt different entirely. But then… was it love? Was it just maybe a little bit of love?

Nico wasn't sure. But he had kissed Will back, hadn't he? Surely that was an indication that he felt at least some of what Will was professing he felt himself. Nico could have very easily pulled away, or whacked Will over the head, or drawn his sword on him, or dived into his shadows to escape him. He hadn't. Because he wasn't averse to kissing Will. Far from it, in fact. It felt almost like he'd been waiting for it.

"You really are kind of blind, aren't you?" He muttered, shaking his head and dropping his chin back to his knee.

"What was that?" Will asked, and it took Nico a moment to realise he'd spoken in Italian. That happened sometimes when he forgot himself. No one had ever picked him up on it before.

"I said you're an idiot," Nico rephrased.

"Me? How am I an idiot?"

"Because you didn't even realise that I liked you, even after we kissed. And _that_ should have been pretty obvious. Nice perceptive skills, Light Bulb."

"Well, you can hardly blame _me_ for not noticing when you didn't – wait, did you just call me Light Bulb? Seriously?"

Nico tucked his chin slightly, turning his face away from Will to hide the smile that threatened to break forth. "You really are an idiot."

"Do you really mean it? Nico, do you really mean you like me too?" Will poked him with a finger in the ribs. "You mean it's not just me who likes you, right?"

Fighting back the urge to sink his head into his hands, Nico turned fully away from Will until his back was to him. There was… something wrong, some warmth rising in his cheeks and – was he blushing? How was that – Nico _never_ blushed. He hadn't thought it was even possible for him!

"If you didn't understand it the first time I said it I don't see what the point is in repeating myself," he said, keeping his attention trained very pointedly on the view out towards the rest of the camp. He didn't see any of it.

Will paused mid poke, his finger prodding Nico's back. Nico fought the urge to glance over his shoulder to read his expression and only withheld that urge for the absolute mortification that he would feel if anyone, even Will, saw him blushing. When Will spoke it was quiet, but so rich and filled to the brim with bubbling joy that Nico could feel the radiant heat of it even without looking at him. "You really do mean that."

It wasn't a question but a statement, the faint awe of understanding in Will's voice punctuated by a faint, incredulous laugh. Cringing – Gods, this was so embarrassing. How did anyone stand it? – Nico slumped backwards until he was resting with his back propped against Will's shoulder. He kept one knee tucked to his chest to drop his forehead onto it in an attempt to hide his face from view.

Casually, easily, Will adjusted himself so Nico was leaning against him more comfortably. It took a moment for Nico to realise that the weight that propped atop the crown of his head was Will's chin. He could shrug him off. He should. But just for the moment he… didn't. Nico found that he didn't actually want to.

"Just putting this out there, so tell me what you think," Will murmured, the thrum of his voice vibrating through Nico's head. Nico lifted his chin slightly, just enough that his voice wouldn't be entirely muffled.

"About what?"

"I was thinking that maybe you could be my boyfriend. If you like."

Nico's breath caught for a moment, hitching. The rapid-fire stream of thoughts, of _Gods, what do I – how should I – do I have to – what am I supposed_ _to say?!_ poured through his mind at a crazed rate and he had to swallow several times as much to quell the returning warmth from his cheeks as to rid the dryness from his mouth.

"I'd say… I think that boyfriend is a stupid word to use."

Will barked out a burst of heartfelt laughter. "Why is that, exactly?"

The hum of his amusement thrummed through Nico's back. It felt entirely too pleasant. He strove for casual condescension as he replied. "Because you're already my boyfriend. You're my friend who's a boy. I don't see how that would make any difference."

"It's all in the sentiment, really. Adhering to cultural norms and all that."

"Sounds stupid."

"Well, what would you prefer, then? Partner? Lover? Significant other?"

"You're an annoyance, that's what you are. Trying to attach a label to everything," Nico grumbled. He resisted the temptation to turn towards Will once more. He could literally feel the warmth of his smile that seemed to only grow with every passing moment. If Nico had any suspicions as to Will's godly paternity it was vanquished with that radiance.

Will laughed. "An annoyance, huh? In that case, I hope I'm at least a significant annoyance."

"Well, you certainly are significantly annoying."

Will laughed once more, the sound loud and jovial, the sort of laugh that induced smiles and drew other people into merriment. Quite to his horror, Nico found himself afflicted with a smile in response.

He wasn't quite sure how it happened next. One moment he had his back propped against Will's shoulder and the next his chin was being grasped, his head tipped backwards at an awkward angle and stealing him from the hidey hole of his huddled pose. An instant later and Will was leaning over the top of him and pressing their lips together in an equally awkward kiss.

Awkward. Yes, it was awkward. And strange, and nowhere near as picture perfect as that first kiss they'd shared half a week before. But it was perfect in an entirely new way. Nico let his eyes slip momentarily closed, lost himself in the gentle yet firm pressure of Will's lips against his own and the taste of breath as it escaped and they readjusted their contact just slightly. Nico's hands curled on the ground with the compulsive urge to reach up and take a hold of Will, an urge that Will evidently sought not to repress as he cupped his hand against Nico's chin and held him closer. It was like it had been –

"Oh, finally!"

The muffled voice, the interruption, immediately jolted Nico from his stupor. With a flinch, he yanked himself from Will's grasp and nearly bounced back-first to the floor. It was only Will's darting catch that spared him the embarrassment.

He glanced sharply towards the still-closed door of the cabin and only just caught a glimpse of the curtains falling shut across the sidelong window from his periphery. Too fast to see who it had been but from the voice – and common sense – Nico felt he could guess who was behind the eavesdropping.

"That'd be Kayla," Will confirmed. "Don't worry about her knowing – I mean, I don't mind who knows I like you but, you know, if you did – because she already knew. She told me."

Nico glanced upwards into Will's downturned face. He was practically lying in his lap, shoulders resting upon Will's knees because of course he would be on his knees. How else would he have been able to even manage such an utterly awkward kiss otherwise? Will's wide grin beamed down at him, upside down, and in the sudden burst of morning sunlight that broke across the cabins he seemed to shine pure golden above Nico – golden hair, golden skin, the peppering of golden freckles and a glowingly bright smile.

 _Yep. Definitely a son of Apollo_.

"If I get harassed for this, I'm blaming you," Nico said, glaring up at Will as his smile only widened. "Don't smile at that. It's not funny."

"On the contrary, it's kind of hilarious. But don't worry, I'll take full responsibility for my actions. You'll just have to stick to my side from now on so that I can assert my authority as a doctor."

"Assert your authority as a doctor?" Nico repeated dubiously.

Will nodded, cocking his head so that his grin slipped to an angle. "You'd be surprised what I can manage with my word as a physician. I could give you a doctor's note and you'd be allowed to spend every night in the Apollo cabin just so that I could 'keep an eye on you'."

"A doctor's note? Seriously?"

"You bet?"

Nico hummed, a smile curling across his lips. "You know, I could see the potential for abuse of this power of yours. Give me this note, now, would you?"

"That's undermining my authority and the sanctity of a doctor's note, you know, Nico."

"Sanctity my arse. You're full of bull as it is. Doctor's note…" He gave a snort and stretched his legs out straight upon the steps, leaning more comfortably against Will's legs. Really, it wasn't all that uncomfortable, this kind of contact. Especially since Will just happened to be so warm. Even through his pyjamas and Nico's jacket that warmth could be felt. "It'll be like my own personal Get Out Of Jail Free card."

"You can try," Will shook his head. "Yeah, I'd like to see you try." The he paused, and a momentary expression of surprise crossed his face. "Wait, have you actually played Monopoly?"

"What?"

"You just made a reference? Who have you played with?" Will dropped an petulant frown. "Why didn't I get to play with you?"

Nico smirked. "Don't worry, Light Bulb, I haven't played with anyone. Just read up on the rules so I can bulldoze you."

"In your dreams," Will said, his smile instantly returning. He seemed almost relieved that Nico hadn't played with anyone else, as though he hadn't been badmouthing the game just days before.

"If history repeats itself, then you know it's going to happen."

"Is that a challenge?"

Nico turned a grin up to Will who met it width for width with a tauntingly raised eyebrow. "It might just be."

"Then challenge accepted. And every one to come." Will nodded his head decisively and Nico was given the distinct impression that he was talking about more than just a game of Monopoly. His suspicions were only doubled when Will bent over him once more and dropped another kiss onto his lips.

It was just as awkward as the last one. Just as reversed in being upside down. And just as fantastic.

Nico thought he could get used to Will's strangeness. He found that he was actually looking forward uncovering discovering more of it.

 _~The End of The Error of His Ways~_

* * *

A/N: Yep, that's the last chapter. But! It's only the first installment of the series 'Rays of Darkness and Shadowed Light'. If you liked the story and - hopefully - would be inclined to read more, I've got the SEQUEL 'A Series of Firsts' coming out in about a week. Hope to see you there!

Anyway, hope you liked the chapter. If you did, or if you had a second to leave a review, I could greatly appreciate it. Thank you!


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